Tuesday of the Second Week of Lent
As we encounter today’s Gospel we might be struck by a sense of incongruity. Certainly we may not call anyone “Rabbi” per se, but the word means “teacher” and we can recall many we have called our “teachers” throughout our lives. Have we sinned? Likewise we have not only called the men who raised us “father,” and we have even “grandfathers”; we call our priests “father” and have since the earliest days of the Church. Even St. Paul says, I am writing you this not to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children. Even if you should have countless guides to Christ, yet you do not have many fathers, for I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. Therefore, I urge you, be imitators of me (1 Cor 4:14-16). Has even St. Paul violated the teaching of Jesus? All of us have likewise referred to many as “Master,” for the word “Mister” by which we formally address nearly every man we meet is merely a corruption of the word "Master.”
But we are not sinning, not violating what Jesus teaches today; even Jesus refers to Abraham as “Father Abraham” (Luke 16:24), and surely referred to Joseph as “father”, to which Mary’s words attest (Luke 2:48). What Jesus is teaching us, therefore, is beyond the literal and resides in the realm of truth: the scribes and Pharisees do not see the authority with which they have been entrusted to be something they must exercise in the service of others. They see it as an honor, and they see it as power: it is about pride for them. Therefore anyone who insists on being called “teacher” ought to consider whether they have first been worthy students. Anyone, especially our priests, who insists on being called “father” ought to consider first if they are worthy, or will strive to be worthy, of being addressed in the same way Jesus teaches us to address our God. Anyone who insists on being called “master” must first consider if what they claim to have mastered is something that has truly mastered them.