Many may criticise Catholics for trusting men such as the pope and priests. Catholics put their trust in Jesus shown by the faithful men in the Church. The same goes for why many Christians go to Church on Sunday, and why many people chose a particular church to go to, it's not only for the beliefs that they may align with, but the proclamation of those beliefs. We automatically listen and trust these men (or women in some cases) in what they are proclaiming as the truth.

 

Isn't it a sin to call the priest "Father" as it mentions in Scripture to call no man Father, except for our Father in Heaven. In Matthew 23:9, Jesus does rebuke calling men “father”; although we need to understand the verse in its right context. As we know, sons and daughters call their biological dad, "father". There's no harm in that. Plus one of the 10 Commandments in the Scriptures is honour you father and your mother. We must note that Jesus uses a lot of symbolic speech, such as "I am the door", "I am the vine". In this same verse, Jesus says, do not call any man "teacher" and “leader”. Well, we know that this is not the case as we call many people teachers, and church leaders. So what did Jesus mean by "call no man Father"? Surely being God, He wouldn't have made a mistake.

 

Throughout the Scriptures, we see that men consider themselves "fathers" is a non-biological sense, one example is Job 29:16. However, when Jesus uses these words in Matthew 23:9, He was not stating that calling a man "father" in all cases is a sin. I believe this verse is saying not to call people "father" or "teacher" in a way that will put them higher than God the Father. A few verses earlier in Matthew 23, Jesus teaches the crowds that the teachers of the law and the Pharisees do not practice what they preach. They give orders to people but are not willing to help. They put themselves in place to give authority, teaching and instructing what they do not believe.

 

Catholics call their priests "Fathers" because they not only are the pastors of the Church, but they gave up the opportunity of being a husband and father to biological children to serve the Church. Calling a priest, father isn't saying that the priest is a father like God is Father is, but saying that, the priest is a spiritual father rather than a biological father. The congregation is like a big physical family, and a physical family needs a physical father to care for them.