As discussed last week, we are a monotheistic people of faith.  Though that is the case, we also believe that our One God is made up of three distinct persons. The Trinity is not something that we can understand fully through our reason like the coming to knowledge of the existence of God.  It has to be revealed to us.  The revelation is important, because it also shows that God wants to have a relationship with us.  He shows us who He is.  God calls Himself Father, which is appropriate for us to go deeper into God’s Fatherhood with Father’s Day being this past weekend.  So who is this Father Almighty?

Both the Sign of the Cross and our Baptism begin with the first person of the Trinity, the Father.  So who is the Father?  Father indicates two things to us:  God is the first origin of everything and transcends all authority. 

In God being the first origin, Father indicates the paternity of God as origin, for all comes from Him.  Some have an issue with calling God Father, because the terminology of Father indicates a patriarchal understanding of God that neglects feminism.  God should be seen in the light of traits of both mother and father.  God would show the fullness of traits of both parents, for God is neither man nor woman.  God is God.  The reason we would use the term Father is because Jesus in teaching the prayer “Our Father” to us, God asks us to refer to Him in the masculine as Father (Matthew 6:7-15).  Christ does this many times throughout the Gospels referring to the Father.

The term Father also indicates God transcends all authority.  Yet again, keep in mind calling God Father does not mean the masculine holds more authority than the feminine.  God transcends that terminology, as He would transcend any kind of authority and terminology we would attempt to use.  It would be inappropriate for us to change the term for the sake of progressive language and ideology when God has asked to be called Father.  In using Father, we humble ourselves before the Lord to recognize His authority – including the way the First Person of the Trinity wants to be addressed.  If God is truly the transcendence of all authority, we cannot impose our ideologies on God.  We do not have the authority to do that.

The Creed does not just refer to God as Father, but it also refers to God as the Father Almighty.  Almighty is a fancy way of us saying God can do anything.  Nothing is impossible for God.  The most important reality that we need to realize with God the Father Almighty is that He can forgive any sin.  Nothing is beyond God’s ability to pour His mercy into our lives.  The only sin that is considered to be unforgiveable is the offense against the Holy Spirit (Mark 3:29).  It is widely considered this sin is one where a person believes their sin is unforgivable and does not confess with contrition.  When we believe that God cannot forgive us of a sin, then we are questioning Him being Almighty.  God can forgive all so long as we seek Him.

God as Father seeks a relationship with us.  It is why He reveals Himself as Father in the Lord’s Prayer.  It is why He seeks to show His love and mercy to each of us.  It is why He wants us to recognize Him in the transcendent.  God shows these things to us so we can come to know who He is.  Knowing who someone is the first step in relating to them.  Let us seek a deeper relationship with God, the perfection of a Father.