Food for Thought

Jun 17, 2015

In a Jan 28, 2015, general audience, on an occasion to continue his catechesis on the family, Pope Francis touched on the topic of fatherhood.

“It is a term dearer than any other to us Christians because it is the name by which Jesus taught us to call God: Father. The meaning of this name took on new depth from the very way Jesus used it to turn to God and to manifest his special relationship with him. The blessed mystery of God’s intimacy, Father, Son and Spirit revealed by Jesus, is the heart of our Christian faith,” he said.

Everyone understands the word “father,” the Pope said. “It indicates a fundamental relationship, the reality of which is as old as human history.”

But it’s also a word that comes with connotations of authoritarianism and oppression for some.

A good father, however, spends time with his children, plays with them, is attentive, he said. As Christians, we must keep in mind the promise that Jesus made to his disciples, the Pope said: “I will not leave you orphans” (Jn 14:18).