Call no man Father

In other words, put no one -- especially politicians -- in God’s place.

That is certainly true in the Church. I call my Bishop “Father,” or really “Master.” I call my fellow priests “Father.” I do so because I am their child in Christ, just as St. Paul called St. Timothy “my son.”

Even more easily do I call my Dad “Father,” simply because I am his son. The prohibition of Our Lord, “Call no man Father” does not apply to dad or priest.

Yes, if I put my hope in my dad, and my belief in him to the point where any of his sins would crush me, then “Father” meant that I had positioned him in a place he cannot occupy, as a creature. My idolatrous disappointment would indispose me (as I would invite the passion of self-esteem): but that same disappointment would harm him (as I would make him the object of my patricidal condescension).

In the same way, if I get depressed or enraged because of the behavior of a bishop or a priest, then here too I must have put them in a place only God can occupy, and I must have placed in them hopes only God can answer. We obey those who have been put in authority over us, but we do not believe in them as the cultists and schismatics do. We don't get rid of bishops just because we might get occasionally disappointed (or because patriarchal hierarchy is embarrassing in our corporate age).

I do not hope in any man, or woman for that matter. I do not believe in any of God's creatures: I recognize them, and I love them, and I try to discern their name.

In other words, I put my trust in no mortal princes.

Politics is a scary, boring operation. It is boring because most of the words used are vapid séances of the gaseous realm. The IQ of political rallies, on all sides, ranges from troll to goblin. It

It is scary because politics calls for a lot of belief and hope. Politics has become something it was never meant to be -- an object of aspiration. Politicians cannot deliver along these lines. When they do, they usually fail and add to the abysmal register of cynicism. When they succeed for a short while, revolutions occur and millions die and libraries go up in flames.

I think politics should call, not for hope and belief, but for love and, as an extension, justice. Even though politics has failed often, here it has succeed on a few occasions.The Emancipation Proclamation comes immediately to mind as one of these. The Byzantine Empire is another. The freeing of the serfs another.

For these things, I am usually optimistic in this age.

Particularly in America. Here, I call no politician “Father,” and I am not expected to -- despite the tragically ludicrous spectacle of talk show hosts and heterodox pulpits caterwauling like the prophets of Baal. I don’t believe in politics. I engage in it, but I don’t believe in it: and there is a big difference between those two meanings. I do not worship Caesar, and I am generally pleased that American politics expects me to be critical and well-read. It expects me to learn our history and our civic ways. It expects me to think through fuzzy labels and to reject any world-bound enthusiasm.

To be fair, American politics expects me to love God first, and from that love to love, patriotically, the people and the land.

I call no man Father, because in that trenchant remark, Jesus Christ, Who said that no man is Good, reminded us that there is only One Father to believe in.

So I do. And I will keep calling my dad “Father,” and my bishop “Father” and my priest “Father,” but I do not burden them with belief and hope that they cannot fulfill.

I will respect my new President and the new Congress. I will criticize them more than the humans I call “Father.” They need my criticism, and I can dish it out with zest and meaning only if I do not put my faith in them. I will be their loyal opposition, their intercessor, their encourager and indeed, their prophet. 

I must be, since I am Orthodox you know. Orthodoxy is a constant memory of Paradise: and this world – including government – must be judged according to that fundament and that goal.

We’ve seen it all -- caesarism, tsarism, the caliphate, classical tyrants, demonic tyrants (ironically located in the secular 20th century), democracies (which are really not democracies but republics), and the present commercial-socialist state.

Democracy is nice, but it is not the only thing. We are not used to voting and we really do not understand it yet. But we will vote, and we Orthodox will vote all over the chart. We seek love and justice in different – not contradictory – ways. Orthodox will vote for McCain. Orthodox will vote for Obama. A few will vote for Messrs. Barr, Paul and Nader. Some will abstain.

But we all must partake of a little gentle anarchism, where we reject any notion of secular millenarianism. We must all remember Paradise, and forget about the hackneyed Rapture-theory but remember instead the actual “man of lawlessness,” whom the Lord is restraining through us.

We must all hope for the best, work for justice and peace, and plant a garden, take care of our family and our animals, keep our friends and stay true. We must extend our ties of kindness.

We have only One Father to believe in, to hope in, to trust in and to have faith in. His Order – His arche – is the party I belong to. His Name is the foundation of all our fraternity – bringing together in the Peace of Christ the races, the ethnicities and cultures, the genders and the socioeconomic strata.

Let us not put our faith in mortal princes, as we who remember the Rum Millet and Ivan the Terrible know how disastrous such misplaced faith could be. Instead, we are experienced at hiding our sons from the janissaries and closing the doors at the anaphora. We had catacombs for churches and deserts for faith.

Here in America, we have front porches. And that is where we talk, judge politics, remember Paradise, and pray.

Comments

[Sofia]

Father, bless.

*Thank you.*

[Iasonos]

I really enjoyed that. Thank you.

[JCW]

Fr. Tobias:
Father, bless. I was wondering, having read the word "bless" and "blessing" a few times in your posts of late, whether you would post on what an Orthodox blessing invokes. My hunch is that it calls things and people to be as they are, as God wants them to be. I'm just a layman, but I'd appreciate the Orthodox perspective. I'll keep on praying for your father-in-law.

Joshua