GOD IS OUR ULTIMATE PARENT

 Reflection on the Word for the Father's Day Sunday of 2022
GOD IS OUR ULTIMATE PARENT -  Galatians 3:23-26
3:23 Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. 3:24 Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. 3:25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian,
3:26 for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. …………………………….

Both Mother's Day and Father's Day celebrations began in the early XXth century. Mother's day was initiated by Anna Jarvis, in a Methodist Church, in the Town of Grafton, West Virginia.
Father's Day was technically established on the wake of the Mother's Day, when Sonora Smart Dodd, who along with her five brothers was raised by her father alone, after attending the Mother's Day celebration at a church in 1909, she convinced the so called Spokane Ministerial Association to help make Father's Day a worldwide feast.

Ironically, the Roman Catholic and the Orthodox Christian churches has promoted the feast day of St.Joseph as a sort of Father's Day since as early as the 14th century, meanwhile they maintained that St. Joseph was not the father of Jesus according to church doctrines.

It is obvious that some forms of the celebrations of the maternal and paternal roles in society had been present in many cultures, before the internationalization of these particular celebrations in the early 20th century.

Still we have to go back to the moral imperativus written in the Ten Commandments more than 3000 years ago, that the Lord commanded the Jews and all the nations that You shall honor your father and your mother.

When we ask that what is the reasoning behind the commandments in general, then in the case of the Ten Commandments the answer is easy, because the Commandments are so simple and axiomatic that there is almost no extra need for further explanations.

There can be found hundreds of other commandments beside the Ten Commandments, and the sages of the old tradition often say about some particular commandment, that we are baffled about this one, we do not have any clue of the great why behind the divine logic of giving us this or that particular commandment, but we obey it anyways, because for us the major reason is to do the will of God, and it is not that we know the great why behind his will, for it is enough for us to know that this is what God wants from us to do, and we do it despite that sometimes we do not understand its reason at all.

The sages say that when Moses announced it to the people around the Mt.Sinai, that God was going to declare his commandments, the people answered the we will do it and we will hear it. Usually the western translations do not give back the meaning of the Hebrew original accurately, because the translations usually read that we will do it and we will obey it. However the Hebrew original says that "na’aseh ve'nishma" and it means that we will do and we will hear it.

According to the tradition, the Mount Sinai commandments were offered to other nations, and they did not want them. Only the Jews said even in advance without knowing the details that we will do it, whatever the Lord says. It does not really matter what the Lord will say. Please Lord, just tell us what you want and we will do it, anything.

In the case of the Ten Commandments, though they are simple, and ti looks like, there is no further need for further explanation, still there are some explanations are written in the Book of the Exodus and the Book of Deuteronomy, respectively.

Regarding honoring our parents the whole commandment goes like this: " Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which the Lord your God gives you." Honoring the parents is a personal and also a social commandment.
It is not enough that I, myself, shall honor my parents, but everybody else shall honor their own parents in the society, and ultimately on the planet.

AND not only that, but everybody must honor all the parents in the whole society, including all elderly, even those who happen to have no children. This commandment is not a private family matter, which may privately depend on the culture or the mood or the moral sensitivity of different families respectively, because the explanation of the commandment is clear that if you obey it, you will have longevity and peace and prosperity in your land. If you breach this law, then there will be violence and chaos in the land. and the land will be also lost shortly, for certain.

That is why, it was so important that Mother's Day and Father's Day became internationally recognized celebrations, practically honoring the Commandment of the Lord, where the honoring of the parents is on of the pillars of law and society.

The Bible says many times that we all are the children of God, just as the Apostle Paul wrote about it repeatedly and also in his letter to the Galatians that “for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith.”

Nonetheless, almost hardly anybody takes this statement literally. However, it is also clearly written at this time in the genealogy written in the New Testament, especially in the Gospel of Luke, where his genealogy goes backwards, from Joseph to Adam.

From Judah and Jacob it goes like this: Juda, which was the son of Jacob, which was the son of Isaac, which was the son of Abraham, which was the son of Thara, which was the son of Nachor, which was the son of Saruch, which was the son of Ragau, which was the son of Phalec, which was the son of Heber, which was the son of Sala, which was the son of Cainan, which was the son of Arphaxad, which was the son of Sem, which was the son of Noe, which was the son of Lamech, hich was the son of Mathusala, which was the son of Enoch, which was the son of Jared, which was the son of Maleleel, which was the son of Cainan, which was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God.

We can find the most interesting information at the end, as the line continues through the fathers from the sons, but at the end it says the Adam was the son of God.

It gives almost the ultimate dignity of humanity that our ultimate parent is God. It is obvious that the Bible and Jesus himself, calls God the Father, and some world class tradition calls God the Creator Grandfather Spirit, still we have to be aware that God is not human, God does not have any biological gender, thus the dignity given to humanity, is exactly as it is that we are all equal children of God, and our ultimate parent is God.

We can see that the Biblical commandment is not partial but complete, when God told to the Israelites, that honor your father and your mother, together.

Maybe we can extend the understanding of the commandment to reflect on its universal nature, that, we, all nations, we must honor all fathers and all mothers and all the elderly for the sake of God, and also that we do well on Earth, by following of the footsteps of Jesus, our brother and master, and by the Holy Spirit,
AMEN

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