Fathers

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What the Fathers say

Isaiah 63:16

Eastern Fathers

Cyril of Jerusalem

For Thou art our Father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Sarah travailed not with us, need we inquire further on this point? And if the Psalmist says, Let them be troubled from His countenance, the Father of the fatherless, and Judge of the widows, is it not manifest to all, that when God is called the Father of orphans who have lately lost their own fathers, He is so named not as begetting them of Himself, but as caring for them and shielding them. …

''Catechetical Lectures, Lecture 7'' ↗

Western Saints

Jerome

For you are our Father, though Abraham does not know us, and Israel does not acknowledge us. You, O Lord, are our Father, our Redeemer from of old is your name. LXX: For you are our Father, because Abraham does not know us, and Israel does not acknowledge us. But you, Lord our Father, free us: from the beginning your name is upon us. For you are our father, the creator of all, says he. …

Commentary on Isaiah ↗

Thomas Aquinas

Third, he sets out a cause for having mercy: for you are our father, and Abraham has not known us, when he was still alive, because we did not then exist; or, even now, he is unwilling to pray for us, because we do not call upon him; or, according to Augustine, because the dead, even the saints, do not know what is to be done for the living: but this is to be understood as to the power of human knowledge, not as to the illumination of divine light: he is your father, that has possessed you, and made you, and created you (Deut 32:6).

Commentary on Isaiah ↗