A son honors his father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is my honor? and if I be a master, where is my fear?
says the LORD of hosts unto you,
O priests, that despise my name. And you say, How have we despised your name?
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Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
We must consider what it is that we have been commanded to pray for—commanded by him from whom we learn to pray for and through whom we obtain what we pray for. He says, “In this manner shall you pray: ‘Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.’?” In every kind of petition we ought first to try to gain the good will of the one we are petitioning. And the praise is usually placed at the beginning of the prayer, where in this instance our Lord has bidden us to say nothing else than “our Father who art in heaven.” Praise of God has been expressed in many manners of speech. Anyone can see this as he reads those forms of praise scattered widely here and there throughout the sacred Scriptures. But nowhere is there found any instruction for the people of Israel to say “our F...
Father. God sometimes took this title, Exodus iv. 32. But he was oftener represented as a master; and the old law was a law of fear. (Calmet)
Servant et metuunt jus. (Juvenal xiv.)
Be obedient to your bishop and obey him as your spiritual father. Sons love and slaves fear. “If I am a father,” he says, “where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my fear?” In your case one man combines in himself many titles to your respect. He is at once monk, bishop and uncle. But the bishops also should know themselves to be priests, not lords. Let them render to the clergy the honor that is their due that the clergy may offer to them the respect which belongs to bishops.
“There is a great distinction, then, between the fear that lacks for nothing, which is the treasure of wisdom and knowledge, and the one that is imperfect, which is called “the beginning of wisdom.” This latter has punishment in itself, and it is cast out from the hearts of the perfect upon the advent of the fullness of love. For “there is no fear in love, but perfect loves casts out fear.” And in fact, if the beginning of wisdom consists in fear, what but the love of Christ will be its perfection, which contains in itself the fear of perfect love and which is no longer called the beginning but rather the treasure of wisdom and knowledge? Therefore there are two degrees of fear. The one is for beginners—that is, for those who are still under the servile dread. In regard to this it is said, “The slave shall fear his master,” and in the Gospel, “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know what his master is doing.” And consequently he says, “The slave does not remain i...
Last Sunday I spoke at sufficient length for the correction of those who do not give thanks to the Creator for the divine gifts that they enjoy and who, while benefiting from heavenly kindness, like ungrateful and unworthy persons do not acknowledge the author of kindness. They are ungrateful, I say, who neither fear God as slaves do their master nor honor him as children do their father. God says through the prophets, “If I am a master, where is my fear? If I am a father, where is my love?” That is to say, if you are a slave, render the master service of fear; if you are a son, show your father a reverent love. But when you do not give thanks, you neither love nor fear God; hence you are an insolent slave or a proud son. The good Christian, therefore, ought always to praise his Father and Master and to do all good things with a view of his glory, as the blessed apostle says: “Whether you eat or drink or do anything, do all for the glory of God.”
And indeed Balaam the prophet, when he had corrupted Israel by Baalpeor, suffered punishment; and Caiaphas at last was his own murderer; and the sons of Sceva, endeavoring to cast out demons, were wounded by them and fled away in an unseemly manner; and the kings of Israel and of Judah, when they became impious, suffered all sorts of punishments. It is therefore evident how bishops and presbyters, also falsely so called, will not escape the judgment of God. For it will be said to them even now: “O you priests that despise my name, I will deliver you up to the slaughter, as I did Zedekiah and Ahab, whom the king of Babylon fried in a frying pan,” as says Jeremiah the prophet. .
