Tuesday of the Second Week of Lent

Call no one on earth your father; you have but one Father in heaven.

In the unfortunate arguments Catholics and Protestants have with one another, this teaching from the Gospel of Saint Matthew sometimes appears. “Why do Catholics call your priests father? Doesn’t that contradict the scriptures?”

Perhaps it does, but as I read that teaching in its whole context Jesus has also instructed us to call no one rabbi or master. It seems we should give titles to no one. All titles – father, mother, daddy, mama, doctor, teacher, reverend, king, president, judge – should be dismissed.  

We are all equal and there is only one authority, God. This is radical egalitarianism and I have no quarrel with it. Like most Americans, I grew up believing the president or the judge or the boss “puts his pants on one leg at a time, just like everybody else.” So far as I know, women do too, though I have no particular knowledge of that.

Saint Francis insisted in his Rule that the friars should obey their ministers except when they were asked to do something immoral or contrary to our Rule:

Thus I strictly order them to obey their ministers in all those things which they have promised the Lord to observe and which are not contrary to the soul and to our rule. 

In the history of the Church this was a radical step. While the friar should always be suspicious of his own opinions and preferences and would be better served if he obeyed for the sake of practicing humility and obedience, he was nonetheless permitted to disobey if he were asked to do something sinful or contrary to our Rule. Francis also understood the leader as minister or servant; he disliked the word superior. 

In our practice of the faith, Christians must balance many considerations. Each is answerable to God for one’s own decisions, attitudes and actions. We cannot say, “I was only following orders.”

But neither can we ignore the instinct for working together which is built into our nature. We need one another to survive, that means we need structures and authority to help us decide what to do. We must be willing to contribute our intelligence and intuitions to the decision making process, and equally ready to throw our backbones into the labor even when we have personal reservations about this or that project.

Social organization seems to be a part of our human nature. We are naturally inclined to recognize “natural leaders” and to gather around them. And honoring them with titles helps that process. As one who has been in leadership, I cannot tell you how happy I am that someone is willing to lead. It is nothing but a cross, I can assure you. I thank God everyday for Father Jim Kent, Friar Bob Baxter, and my Chief Chaplain at the VA Hospital, Gary Yarberry. I would call any of them Der Fuhrer if it meant I didn’t have to lead.

This passage from scriptures – Call no one father – is more controversial and challenging than you might have thought. Jesus dares us to bring our intelligence, integrity, courage, humility and willingness to the project of Church, with reverence for one another and our leaders. We pray for them knowing they are vulnerable human beings like everyone else – putting their pants on one leg at a time – and yet burdened with the grave responsibility of leadership.