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Why God is Father, not Mother
Why do we say, “Our Father” and not “Our Mother”? God the Father, it would seem, does not have sexual organs of gender. Why then is He God the Father?
Lately, we have been exploring the way the culture of death manipulates the words of our language to gain ground in the culture war. So far, we’ve looked at Enlightenment use of the term “individual” and then, more recently, the phrases “gay marriage” and “marriage equality.”
We are observing the careful strategy to strip “personhood” away from what it means to be human. Ultimately, this is a demonic attempt to undermine the way we know God as Father.
Our Lord Jesus Christ revealed God as His Father. Christ’s mission, among other things, was to reveal that God could become our Father and so He taught us to pray “Our Father.”
The Fatherhood of God goes back to the Old Testament: “He shall cry out to me: Thou art my Father.” (Psalm 88:27)
But why is God “Our Father” and not “Our Mother”?
Sacred Scripture does use maternal language God. The Prophet Isaiah reveals:
“Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you” (Isa 49:15), and “As one whom his mother comforts, so will I comfort you” (Isa 66:13).
These are metaphors of God’s tender mercy and compassion. Many have argued that passages like this prove that God is equally “Our Mother.” Is this the case? Scripture and Tradition answer in the negative.
Here’s the answer briefly. God created us male and female. Just like the rest of the animal kingdom, we humans are male and female. The Bible associates man with the actualizing power of the divine and the woman with the receptive power of the creation.
The marriage of a man and woman signifies the sacramental union of the uncreated God with creatures. When a husband enters the bride, a new life springs forth. When God enters creation, the Life of the World springs forth. The Incarnation of Christ is revealed.
This is why nature, creation, and the Church are always feminine. We speak of Mother Nature, Mother Earth, and Mother Church. These signify the receptive womb or matrix awaiting divine life.
This is also why Saint Paul associates the rejection of God with homosexual behavior (gay and lesbian) in the first chapter of his Epistle to the Romans:
“Who changed the truth of God into a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. For this cause, God delivered them up to shameful affections. For their women have changed the natural use into that use which is against nature. And, in like manner, the men also, leaving the natural use of the women, have burned in their lusts, one towards another: men with men, working that which is filthy and receiving in themselves the recompense which was due to their error.” (Romans 1:25–27, D-R)
Whenever we reject the sacramental vision of God as life giving Groom and creation as receptive Bride – when we mix that up – homosexuality is the result. The way we think leads to the way we act.
If sexuality does not have a divine signification pointing toward human salvation and felicity, then it loses all meaning.
Godspeed,
Taylor
PS: This is another reason why we must continue to employ the language of “Mother Church” and encourage true devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. She is the archetype for the Church and for all creation. She is the perfectly receptive woman. Yet another reason why she is sinless and without stain. The pinacle of true femininity.
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