August/September
2009
- Vol. 32
God
is Father
From
a sermon by Cyril of Jerusalem, 4th
century
If you want to know why
we call our God
Father, listen to Moses: `Is he not your
Father who created you, who made
you and established you?' (Deuteronomy
32:6)
Listen too to Isaiah:
`O Lord, you are our
Father; we are the clay, and you are the
potter; we are all the work of
your hand.' (Isaiah 64:8) Under prophetic
inspiration Isaiah speaks plainly.
God is our Father, not by nature, but by
grace and by adoption. Paul too
was a father: father of the Christians in
Corinth. Not because he had begotten
them according to the flesh, but because he
had regenerated them according
to the Spirit.
Christ when his body
was fastened to the
cross saw Mary, his mother according to the
flesh, and John, the disciple
most dear to him, and said to John: `Behold
your mother.' and to Mary:
`Behold your son.' Christ called Mary John's
mother, not because she had
begotten him, but because she loved him.
(John 19:26-27) Joseph too was
called father of Christ, not as procreator
in a physical sense, but as
his guardian: he was to nourish and protect
him.
With greater reason God
calls himself Father
of human beings and wants to be called
Father by us. What unspeakable generosity!
He dwells in the heavens; we live on the
earth. He has created the ages;
we live in time. He holds the world in his
hand; we are but grasshoppers
on the face of the earth.
Introduction
Commentary
on God the Father
»
I
believe in God the Father,
by Augustine of Hippo
»
God
is
Father, by Cyril of
Jerusalem
»
The
Foundation
Stone of the Soul, by
Cyril of Jerusalem
»
The
Privilege
and Responsibility of
Calling God Father, by
Cyril of Alexandria
Commentary
on the Lord's Prayer
»
Our
Father, by Gregory of
Nyssa
»
Who
art
in Heaven, by Gregory of
Nyssa
»
Hallowed
by
thy Name, by Origen
»
Thy
Kingdom
Come, by Origen
»
Thy
will
be done, by Origen
»
Give
us
our daily bread, by
Gregory of Nyssa
»
Forgive
us
our trespasses, by
Cassian
»
And
lead
us not into temptation,
by Origen
»
But
deliver
us from evil, by Cyprian
of Carthage
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