CENTRAL DOSSIER
Biblical man, contemplating the universe which surrounded him, perceived as if instinctively the mysterious presence of the Creator, so it was spontaneous for him to exclaim with wonder and joy: "Oh Lord, our Lord, how awesome is your name through all the earth!" (Ps 8:2). But at the same time there was also alive in him, as in every believer, the desire to perceive or to discern something of the face itself of God.
This is a very deep aspiration. It is as if it was the soul of every religion, the substance of every authentic prayer. In the Bible, as in many of the writings by mystics, it is particularly intense and deeply felt: "Oh God, you are my God; for you I long! For you my body yearns; for you my soul thirsts, like a land parched, lifeless, and without water" (Ps 63:2). With intense desire also St. Augustine writes: "You made us for you, Lord. Our heart is restless until it rests in you". And St. Theresa of Lisieux: "Your face, Lord, is my only homeland".
What idea do we have of God? -- This desire to know the true face of God is very important, because many things depend on the conception that we have of Him. If God is conceived as "Lord/Master" or as "a severe and demanding judge", the practice of religion is dominated by fear and by a meticulous and demanding judgementalism, and human relationships in civil society are also marked by a fanatical and intolerant judgementalism; many conflicts, acts of violence and religious wars, both past and present, demonstrate this. If, instead, God manifests Himself and is accepted as "the merciful Father", He cannot fail to arouse and nurture feelings and behaviors of understanding, of reciprocal acceptance and of trusting hope.
Such diverse concepts, at times opposing, are even to be found in the Bible, although it is a book wholly "inspired" by God. It may happen, in fact, that the divine message, passing though the opaque screen of a very imperfect human culture, sometimes remains partially blurred by the concept that the men of that time had of God. This is also indicated by Jesus in the Gospel when He speaks about divorce (cf. Mt 19:8) and several times in the Sermon on the Mount: "It was said by the ancients... But I say unto you...".
Examples of fanatical and intolerant religious zeal can be found in Joshua 6 and 7 (when Joshua ordered the extermination of whole cities) and also in Exodus 32 (when Moses orders that all those who had violated the intimate covenant with Yahweh at the foot of Sinai should be killed)... Moses himself, seeing the consequences of the order which he had given to his Levites in the name of God, is shocked... He prostrates himself before the Lord and supplicates Him "If you would only forgive their sin! If you will not, then strike me out of the book that you have written" (Ex 32:32).
Subsequently, all through the Old Testament we have a frequent alternation of shadow and light in this ardent search to penetrate the mystery of God, the "thrice Holy". It is a quest which, nurtured and increasingly purified by the supernatural action of the Spirit, will arrive to the point of opening truly radiant perspectives. Sometimes it was the Psalmists who discerned the path to follow: "The Lord is my shepherd" (Ps 23); "You will show me the path to life: abounding joy in your presence" (Ps 16:11); "Like a weaned child on its mother's lap" (Ps 131:2), etc. But, above all, it was the Prophets who were to pronounce completely new words and, through perspectives never before seen, reveal to us something of the face of the true God: holy, lover of life, merciful.
For man, always hard of heart, it is difficult to understand the mystery of God: "God", they think, "is either just, and therefore inexorable with those who transgress, or He is not God". But He, the "thrice Holy", does not tolerate this "caricature" of His image!
A milestone on the long road that has been taken in search of the manifestation of the true face of God, is the sorrowful experience of the prophet Hosea (who lived around 750 b.c.). He lived an experience which he himself interpreted as a "symbol" of God's love for His people... The God of Israel is so faithful in His love that it does not weaken even when faced with the obstinate infidelity of His wife. Certainly Yahweh is a jealous God, He cannot tolerate evil; but He castigates only in order to correct and to save. In fact, after the threatening words to the unfaithful wife, immediately He changes tone and says: "So I will allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak to her heart". And He concludes: "I will espouse you to me forever; I will espouse you in right and in justice, in love and in mercy; I will espouse you in fidelity, and you shall know the Lord" (Hos 2:16,21,22). Words which are an urgent call to a life of profound intimacy, of reciprocal tenderness and of faithful love.
In 62:5 Isaiah also speaks of married love between God and His people, and it is in a joyful atmosphere, as in a wedding feast: the joy of the bridegroom because He can love the bride; the joy for the Creator is in loving that which He created!... It is almost as if God Himself could not be completely happy if He did not have this joyous marriage of love: "And as a bridegroom rejoices in his bride so shall your God rejoice in you" (Is 62:5; also cf. Is 49:16ff).
No less emotionally stimulating is chapter 11 of Hosea where God manifests a sensitive and paternal love toward the people who have just come out of Egypt. But great is His bitterness when He realizes that the coddled child reveals himself to be insensitive and ungrateful. Therefore it comes spontaneously, even to God's mind, that the child should be punished severely. But then immediately He corrects Himself and exclaims "How could I give you up, O Ephraim... My heart is overwhelmed... I will not give vent to my blazing anger... For I am God and not man" (Hos 11:8ff). How strange, how surprising this fact that God should acknowledge that His heart is overwhelmed! Almost as if to say that to know God truly in His deep mystery, it is not enough to listen to His words or see the lineaments of His face. God is heart! God is love! The mystery of His divine transcendency is the mystery of a love which admits that it is incapable of punishing a child, even if he is unfaithful and ungrateful. His love is faithful forever. His constancy is eternal: a tie so indissoluble that it will never diminish.
Calling God with the name of "Father" -- To call God by the name of "Father" was quite common among the ancient peoples of the Middle East (Egyptians, Babylonians, Chaldeans, etc.). The same can be said of the Greeks and the Romans, who frequently spoke of "father" Jupiter or Mars or Apollo... Jove, indeed, was attributed with the title of Deorum Hominumque Pater ("father of the gods and of men"). The intention of using this title, however, was only to acclaim his governing of the world or to invoke his protection for the people or for a city.
In the books of the Old Testament, God is also sometimes invoked with the name of "Father", but it is somewhat limited and usually refers to its being used by the "people", understood as "the chosen people", or by "the king", but not by single individuals. And it is precisely with regard to their being the chosen people, in recalling this choice, that the prophets would turn, since they often had occasion to rebuke the people because of their frequent infidelities toward "their God". One reads, for example, in Dt 32:6: "Is the Lord to be thus repaid by you, O stupid and foolish people? Is HE not your FATHER who created you? Has he not made you and established you?"
This same concept is noticeable in several of the prophets. In Jer 3:4 for example "Even now do you not call me, 'My father, you who are the bridegroom of my youth'?". And again: I will lead them...on a level road, so that none shall stumble. For I am a father to Israel, Ephraim is my first-born" (Jer 31:9). And also again in Isaiah: "You, Lord, are our Father; our Redeemer from of old is your name" (Is 63:16)... These are texts which deserve our emotional attention and in which, together with the painful and explicit awareness of its own infidelities, Israel recognizes that for them an existence without God or alien to Him is unthinkable. The alliance with the Most High is the "constituting" element of its identity.
The Divine Person of the Father in the New Testament
The New Testament opens with something extremely new compared to the Old Testament. It emerges right from the beginning, in the words in which the angel announces to Mary (Lk) and to Joseph (Mt) the birth of a baby which will be called "Son of the Most High". Even more explicit are the expressions used in the accounts of the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan, when the Holy Spirit descends upon Him in the form of a dove and from the heavens a voice proclaims "You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased" (Lk 3:22 et al.).
If Jesus Christ is the "Son of God" and more specifically "the only Son of the Father", as is frequently affirmed in the fourth Gospel, it is clear that God cannot be conceived as "eternally alone", but, on the contrary, he is truly "father", and has always had a "son". Thus we have in God a divine person who has been a father (the Father) forever, and a divine person who forever has been "the Son". And to be even more precise: we have in God a divine person characterized in His "identity" precisely because of the fact of being a father; and, respectively, a divine person who owes His "identity" to the fact of being "son". We can then add that always, in this context, there emerges a third divine person: the Holy Spirit, qualified as "the communion" of the reciprocal love of the Father and of the Son.
It is clear then that the name of "Father" is attributed to God not simply because he is the "creator" of the universe. According to the New Testament, God is the Father of Christ in a unique and ineffable way. He is "the FATHER ", the first Person within the mystery of the trinity; and it is precisely this "paternity" which defines His "personal identity". But let us go step by step:
1. Jesus, when He speaks of God or invokes Him, almost always calls Him with the name of "Father": He does this in the first phrase of His reply to Mary in the temple (Lk 2:49) and also in His last invocation on the cross ("Father, into your hands I commend my spirit", Lk 23:46). And He also uses this term in His prayer of praise (Mt 11:27), and in His anguished supplication in Gethsemane (Mk 14:36).
2. By invoking God with the name of "Father", Jesus uses expressions which emphasize the unique character of such a paternity (using the absolute term "the Father"). The relationship which He has with Him is unique: calling Him "my Father" or qualifying Himself as "the Son" in an absolute sense or "the Holy One of God" and also "the Only Son" of the Father!...
3. However, expressions are not lacking which qualify clearly how different is His and our relationship with the Father: "I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God" (Jn 20:17).
4. Very significant also are those extracts of the New Testament which attest both to the clear distinction between the Father and the Son: "Quia Pater maior me est" (Jn 14:28), and to the profound and mysterious unity which exists between them: "I am in the Father and the Father is in me" (Jn 14:11); "So that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us" (Jn 17:21).
5. Surprising, lastly, is the total reciprocity which is affirmed clearly by Jesus Himself in the context of His speaking to the Father when He says: "No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him" (Mt 11:27 and Lk 10:22).
Totally Father
In God's creatures, maternity and paternity are a "possible" and transitory state. People become them only if they decide to have a child and if the conditions are right. And yet, in spite of this, maternity and paternity are seen as a wonderful thing, and only if they are truly lived in a context of love can their significance be fully appreciated.
In God, however, the generation of the Son is not a fortuitous and transitory act, but an essential part, a constituent element, of the very identity of the divine person which is the FATHER. Eternal, in fact, is the generation of the Son; eternal is the giving of life; eternal is His gift of love. Therefore the Father is essentially "father"; He is totally "father". Only He, in the mystery of the communion of the trinitary, bears this name. And He is a divine person, defined in His identity precisely because of the fact that He is "father".
He is the fullness of life and He gives it; He is totally love, and He gives Himself! This is the most mysterious and at the same time the most marvelous aspect of the mystery of the trinity: infinite fullness of life and love! Eternal giving of life and love. A continual giving of Himself; a continuing giving... to multiply life... to radiate love... totally and freely given.
It is this free-giving which characterizes the person of the Father; He who is the eternal and total gift of life and love to the Son, He who "gave origin to the universe to spread His love on all creatures" (Preg.E.).
He, surging fount of life (He "Vivens Pater", as Jesus called Him); of His life lives the Son ("et ego vivo propter Patrem", Jesus declares again); a LIFE not only human but (in its love) a supernatural and filial life which radiates from the Heart of Christ and is offered to all who open their hearts to such a gift: "Qui manducat me, et ipse vivet propter me" (Jn 6:57).
Precisely because the heavenly Father is essentially "father" and fully "father", everything in Him is fatherly: every one of His thoughts; every one of His words; every one of His acts. And in Him, who is totally "father", is the summation of everything which for us can be seen or defined as "fatherly" or "motherly": goodness, generosity, tenderness, courage, compassion, mercy, free-givingness, dedication, oblation... and above all love. In fact the only word that embraces all these characteristics is LOVE, both in all creation and above all in God.
God, in fact, is LOVE: "Deus caritas est" (1Jn 4:8). And we repeat this fact: God the Father is fullness of life, and "He gives it"; God the Father is totally love, and "He gives Himself".
Created by GOD/LOVE and created for love, it is only in love that the human person too will be able to understand himself and fulfill himself totally.