April 6, 2018 at 1:53 p.m.
Pope: God is both our father and mother
Since January, the Pope has spoken several times about the Church's understanding of God the Father.
Christians inherited the image of God as Father from the Jews, Pope John Paul said. The Jews experienced God as Father through His creation and in His repeated efforts to save them. In Hebrew Scriptures, God expresses His love for His people "with profound tenderness, even when He is forced to lament His children's lack of a corresponding love.
Maternal God
"A paternity so divine and, at the same time so `human' in the ways it is expressed, also includes characteristics which are usually attributed to maternal love," he said. "Even if they are rare, the Old Testament images in which God is compared to a mother are extremely significant."The pope cited as examples two passages from Isaiah in which the people are told that God, like a mother, can never forget them and that "as a mother comforts her son, so will I comfort you."
While people struggle to describe God with human attributes the Pope said the best way to understand the nature of God the Father is to remember the simple affirmation: "God is Love."
"The infinite love of the Father for the world is revealed in the sacrifice of Christ," he said. "The capacity to love infinitely, giving oneself without reservations and limits, is a quality of God."
God the Father
The Catechism of the Catholic Church notes that "by calling God `Father,' the language of faith indicates two main things: that God is the first origin of everything and transcendent authority; and that He is at the same time goodness and loving care for all His children."The Catechism also notes that God's tenderness can be "expressed by the image of motherhood, which emphasizes God's immanence, the intimacy between Creator and creature. The language of faith thus draws on the human experience of parents, who are in a way the first representatives of God for man. But this experience also tells us that human parents are fallible and can disfigure the face of fatherhood and motherhood.
"We ought therefore to recall that God transcends the human distinction between the sexes. He is neither man nor woman: He is God. He also transcends human fatherhood and motherhood, although he is their origin and standard: no one is father as God is Father."
Parents' role
The first images a child has of God come from their own parents, explained Joyce Solimini, associate director for catechesis for children, youth and families for the Albany Diocesan Office of Religious Education.In "Family Page," a monthly resource produced by the ORE for parishes and families, she states: "How you love and act toward your child will have a profound effect on his attitude toward God. If you are tender and trustworthy, giving your child a sense of worth and encouragement, your child will apply these characteristics to God. Likewise, if you are arbitrary, critical and cannot keep your word, your child will think that God must be a similar parent."
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