Concepts

Presidency and Fatherhood

Article: Presidency… and Fatherhood¹

The bishop, without a doubt, is a father to the people, and he is also a master; he possesses fatherhood, and he possesses presidency and authority. But which of the two qualities predominates in him?

In order to answer this question well, we must look to God Himself and to His apostles and prophets.

God the Father, Our Father

God is the Lord of all creation. All of it is the work of His hands, and all of it is subject to His authority. We often call God and address Him as Lord. But God prefers to be a Father. When our good Savior taught us the Lord’s Prayer, He did not ask us to direct it to our Master, the Creator and Ruler; rather, He commanded us to say: “Our Father who art in heaven…”

This is not something new from the teachings of the New Testament; rather, it is something clear from the very beginning, in which God calls His creation sons and calls Himself a Father even to sinners among them. Thus He says in the Psalm: “He shall cry unto Me, Thou art my Father, my God, and the rock of my salvation” (Ps 89:26). “I said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the Most High” (Ps 82:6). “For I am a Father to Israel, and Ephraim is My firstborn” (Jer 31:9).

The prophets understood this truth. Thus it is said in the book of Isaiah the prophet: “Doubtless Thou art our Father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not: Thou, O Lord, art our Father, our Redeemer; Thy name is from everlasting” (Isa 63:16). “But now, O Lord, Thou art our Father; we are the clay, and Thou our potter” (Isa 64:8). Even in the case of sin, the Lord did not remove His fatherhood from mankind; for when the sons of Seth, chosen by God, fell into fornication with the wicked, the Scripture said: “The sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair” (Gen 6:2). And the Lord Himself complains of the sin of mankind, saying in the book of Jeremiah the prophet (10:20): “My children are gone forth from Me,” and He advises them, saying: “Return, O backsliding children, saith the Lord” (Jer 3:14). And the Lord says in the book of Isaiah: “I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against Me” (Isa 1:2). And the prodigal son did not have the attribute of sonship taken away from him by the father, for he said: “This my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found” (Luke 15:24).

This matter is also celebrated by the apostles in the New Testament. Thus the Apostle Paul says: “God Himself and our Father” (1 Thess 3:11). And the Lord Christ says: “Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32).

The Lord Christ, Our Father

Isaiah the prophet called Him: “…Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isa 9:6). And our Lord Jesus Christ Himself used this title as well. He said to the paralytic: “Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee” (Matt 9:2). And He said to the disciples: “Children, how hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God” (Mark 10:24). And He said to the Canaanite woman: “It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to dogs” (Matt 15:26).

The Prophets and Apostles Are Our Fathers

Elisha cried out as he saw Elijah ascending to heaven: “My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof” (2 Kings 2:12). With the same expression King Joash spoke to Elisha the prophet (2 Kings 13:14). And the Apostle Paul speaks to the people of Corinth, saying: “I have begotten you in Christ Jesus” (1 Cor 4:15). And he sends to Timothy, calling him in his first epistle (1:2) “my true son in the faith,” and he calls him in the second epistle (1:2) “the beloved son,” and says to him: “Be strong, my son, in the grace” (2 Tim 2:1). And he sends to his disciple Titus, calling him “my own son after the common faith” (Titus 1:4). And when he sent to Philemon concerning Onesimus, he said to him: “I beseech thee for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my bonds… receive him, that is, mine own bowels” (Philem 1:10–12).

And John the beloved writes to the believers, saying to them: “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not” (1 John 2:1).

Bishops Are Fathers

If God and His apostles and prophets have chosen for themselves the title of fatherhood more than that of lordship, then all the more the bishop, the steward of God and the successor of His apostles. The Didascalia says of him that he is “your father after God” (ch. 6).

Fatherhood carries the meaning of tenderness, compassion, and love, and these are the primary foundation of the relationship between the bishop and his children. When David called God a Father, he remembered this attribute and said: “As a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him” (Ps 103:13). And when the Apostle Paul mentioned his fatherhood toward Onesimus, he said: “who is my own bowels.”

The Holy Church loves this title. When she commemorates the saints in the Synaxarion, she says: “Our holy fathers,” “our father so-and-so.” And in the intercessions she says: “Our fathers the chief priests and our fathers the bishops.” Out of her pride in this title, she calls the chief hierarch “the Pope,” and she gives the bishop the title (Anba), meaning “father.”

Fatherhood Is Deeper and More Influential Than Authority

While we acknowledge that the bishop is a master, a president, a king, and a shepherd, as the Didascalia calls him, yet when we say “our father the bishop,” “our father the metropolitan,” and “our father the patriarch,” a strong feeling takes possession of us, with an affection far deeper than the formalities of presidency and authority. It is enough that God Himself we call “our Father,” without any diminution of His authority over us.

And you, O father bishop, when you forget that you are a president and a master, and remember only that you are a father who gathers his children into his bosom as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, then you will live in a beautiful atmosphere of love, binding you to your children by affection more than by law, and by love more than by submission.

God Himself desired to raise people from the bondage of the Law to the freedom of love which casts fear outside.

You have authority, O father, and it is your right to command and be obeyed; but it is good for us to forget your authority, and for all to obey you out of love for you, not fear of you, and in seeking your blessings and satisfaction, not in avoidance of your punishments and the authority of your priesthood.

Some may submit to your command and carry it out, while within themselves there is murmuring that may sometimes rise to their lips. But by love you gain another kind of submission: the submission of trust and the satisfaction of the heart.

By fatherhood people open their hearts to you and discuss matters with you in frankness; but mere authority makes them flee. Do not make them look at you as a feared master, but as a beloved father. Let us hear the word of Scripture:

“If thou wilt be a servant unto this people this day, and wilt serve them, and answer them, and speak good words to them, then they will be thy servants for ever” (1 Kings 12:7).

This subject is long; it is the foundation of all pastoral care. We shall complete it in the coming issues, if the grace of the Lord wills and we live.

Shenouda
Bishop of Theological Institutes and Church Education

1. An article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III – Al-Keraza Magazine – Second Year – Issue Four – May 1966

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