1) GOD AS FATHER INCLUDES THE IDEA OF PARENTAL LOVE:

"Whenever you pray, go to our room, close the door, and pray to your Father in private. The your Father, who sees what no man sees, will repay you…Your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.…Yet your heavenly Father feeds them" (Mt 6: 5-8)

[repay: a promise that will take place, because He said so]

[knows: knows is the same as saying your name, He knows all about you]

"…how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to anyone who asks Him." (Mt 7:11)

[good things: could not these be the best, coming from the Father?]

"Yet not a single sparrow falls to the ground without the Father’s consent." (Mt 10:29-31)

[consent: nothing happens apart from the Father’s control or agreement]

"It is no part of your heavenly Father’s plan that a single one of these little ones shall ever come to grief." (Mt 18:14)

[no part: God has a plan for each of us…no part…no detail is insignificant]]

2) THE LOVE OF THE FATHER IN HEAVEN IS A MODEL OF THE LOVE WITH

WHICH THE DISCIPLES SHOULD LOVE THEIR ENEMIES:

"Love your enemies, pray for your persecutors. This will prove that you are sons (and daughter) of your heavenly Father, for the sun rises on the bad and the good, He rains on the just and unjust." (Mt 5:43) God invites the unjust to respond to Him through evidence of His love…we must do the same.

[prove: prove not so much to God as to ourselves…God already knows]

3) THE FATHER IS THE MODEL OF PERFECTION WHICH THE DISCIPLES

SHOULD SEEK TO ATTAIN: [During teaching on the mountainside – Beatitudes]

"In a word, you must be MADE perfect as you heavenly Father is perfect." (Mt 5:48) Perfection is revealed in His love for humankind.

[made: there is implied that our cooperation is required, but the initiator is God. This means that the final crown for us who are made in His image is be made perfect! Just as we want our family members to have the best of our qualities.]

4) THE FATHER AS AN EXAMPLE OF FORGIVENESS:

"If you forgive the faults of others your heavenly Father will forgive you yours. If you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive you." (Mt 6:14) [Merciless official]

[neither: this is the justice of God]

"My heavenly Father will treat you in exactly the same way unless each of you forgive his brother (or sister) from his (or her) heart." (Mt 18:35) [Lord’s prayer]

[in exactly the same way: We know how it feels to receive forgiveness in confession or reconciliation or being forgiven by someone who offended us]

[from the heart: Forgiving from the heart sets us free to love, because we are indeed doing the loving thing]

"While he was still a long way off, his father caught sight of him, and was deeply moved. He ran to meet him, threw his arms around his neck, and kissed him…let us eat and celebrate…a son of mine was dead and has come back to life." (Lk 15:20, 23)

[deeply moved: not just happy, but deeply moved. Moved just as Jesus was moved looking at the city of Jerusalem or when He heard of Lazarus’ death]

[celebrate: Not just breaking bread together as in the Eucharist, but a celebration!]

(John 5:36) "But I have a testimony greater than John's. The works that the Father has given me to complete, the very works that I am doing, testify on my behalf that the Father has sent me."

(John 8:42) "Jesus said to them, "If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and now I am here. I did not come on my own, but he sent me."

16: 28 I came from the Father and have come into the world; again, I am leaving the world and am going to the Father."

17:5 So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed.

16:10 about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will see me no longer;

16:28 You heard me say to you, 'I am going away, and I am coming to you.' If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I.

3:35 The Father loves the Son and has placed all things in his hands.

5:17 But Jesus answered them, "My Father is still working, and I also am working."

5:19 Jesus said to them, "Very truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise.

6:44 No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me; and I will raise that person up on the last day.

6:65 And he said, "For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father."

8:28 So Jesus said, "When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own, but I speak these things as the Father instructed me.

8:42 Jesus said to them, "If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and now I am here. I did not come on my own, but he sent me.

10:32 Jesus replied, "I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these are you going to stone me?"

12: 49 for I have not spoken on my own, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment about what to say and what to speak.

5: 21 Indeed, just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whomever he wishes.

6: 40 This is indeed the will of my Father, that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life; and I will raise them up on the last day."

17: 24 Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

6: 40 This is indeed the will of my Father, that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life; and I will raise them up on the last day."

16: 32 The hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each one to his home, and you will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone because the Father is with me.

15: 15 I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father.

10: 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep.

10: 38 But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father."

14: 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works.

16: 32 The hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each one to his home, and you will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone because the Father is with me.

10: 30 The Father and I are one."

14: 31 but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us be on our way.

10: 17 For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again.

15: 9 As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love.

6: 46 Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father.

14: 7 If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen

16: 27 for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.

14: 23 Jesus answered him, "Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.

17: 21 that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

20: 21 Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you."