God is Our Father

By Fr. Christopher Foeckler, MJ • Phoenix, AZ

As we move into the warmest part of the summer, especially here in Arizona where temps reach beyond 110 degrees every day, things can really slow down for us and our families. It’s certainly a good time for vacation to rest and recharge our bodies, and it’s also a good time to go on retreat or at least stop and contemplate the things of God and our lives in union with Him in a more relaxed way, in order to recharge our spirit and our connection with the One who loves us more than we can imagine. Having now concluded for this liturgical year the solemn celebration of the Paschal Mystery and the major solemnities which flow from the great work of Christ to reveal the mysteries of God, we could now consider not only what God did for us but WHO God is in Himself. Who is this God who loves us so much that He sent His beloved Son to reveal Himself fully to us? 

Jesus prayed to His Father in the Last Supper saying, “Now this is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God.” (Jn 17:3) So perhaps one of the simplest and most fruitful contemplations we can make is to consider deeply that God is our Father!

In the Old Testament, Israel recognizes God as a Father in that He created everything and that He gave the Law, yet this is simply an analogous description of God – He is like a Father because He has done these things. Jesus came to reveal His Father in a new and unprecedented way by identifying Himself as God’s beloved eternal Son Who alone knows the Father and alone makes the Father known thereby revealing that God is literally, or in fact, a Father – His Father! The essence of Fatherhood is to generate life and to love what is begotten: “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased!” Not only is it revealed to us that Jesus came from the Father, but that they are of one being, one substance, or as we say in the Nicene creed, “consubstantial”: “Everything that the Father has”, Jesus said, “is mine.” Jn 16:14

The other unique quality of God the Father we learn when Jesus compares Him to the fathers on earth is He is Good. He makes the sun and rain fall on the good and the bad alike demonstrating that special character of the Father’s love – unconditional love.

Thus, we begin our summer reflection on God the Father, and will continue next month with more on how This Good God is indeed our Father.