Malachi 1:6

We must consider what it is that we have been commanded to pray for—commanded by him from whom we learn to pray for and through whom we obtain what we pray for. He says, "In this manner shall you pray: 'Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.'?" In every kind of petition we ought first to try to gain the good will of the one we are petitioning. And the praise is usually placed at the beginning of the prayer, where in this instance our Lord has bidden us to say nothing else than "our Father who art in heaven." Praise of God has been expressed in many manners of speech. Anyone can see this as he reads those forms of praise scattered widely here and there throughout the sacred Scriptures. But nowhere is there found any instruction for the people of Israel to say "our Father" or to pray to God as a Father. To them he has been proposed as a master, for they were servants; that is, they were as yet living according to the flesh. When I say this, I am referring to them when they received the commandments of the law which they were ordered to observe, for the prophets frequently point out that this same Lord of ours would have been their father as well, if they did not stray from his commandments. For instance, there are the following expressions: "I have begotten children and exalted them, but they have despised me," and, "I have said, 'You are gods and all of you the sons of the most high,' " and, "If I am a master, where is my fear? […]

And again in another place He maketh known that He employeth every kind of benefit and help towards them, and that He took and brought nigh unto them every cause for fear and love, but that they would neither fear nor love Him. "If I …

And indeed Balaam the prophet, when he had corrupted Israel by Baal-peor, suffered punishment; and Caiaphas at last was his own murderer; and the sons of Sceva, endeavoring to cast out demons, were wounded by them and fled away in an unseemly manner; and the kings of Israel and of Judah, when they became impious, suffered all sorts of punishments. It is therefore evident how bishops and presbyters, also falsely so called, will not escape the judgment of God. For it will be said to them even now: "O you priests that despise my name, I will deliver you up to the slaughter, as I did Zedekiah and Ahab, whom the king of Babylon fried in a frying pan," as says Jeremiah the prophet.

(Verse 6.) The son honors the father, and the servant his master: if therefore I am a father, where is my honor? and if I am a master, where is my fear? says the Lord of hosts. LXX: The son glorifies the father, and the servant his master will fear. And if I am a father, where is my glory? And if I am a master, where is my fear? says the Almighty Lord. Although before you were born, I began to love you like sons: yet choose how you will call me, either father or master. If you are a father, give your father the respect that is due, and show the appropriate devotion to your parent. If you are a master, why do you despise me? Why do you not fear the master? However, he is speaking to those who have returned from the Babylonian captivity under Zerubbabel and the son of Josedech, and the priest Ezra, and Nehemiah, and have constructed an altar, but have not yet built the temple, nor have they rebuilt the walls of the city, and nevertheless they remained in their former sins, not venerating God with love or fear. But what we have called glory, or honor, is one word both among the Greeks, δόξα, and among the Hebrews 947 כָּבוֹד (Chabod), but for the sake of the Latin language we have used the word honor. For even in the Gospel where the Lord speaks and says: Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you (John 17:1), it is read as δόξασον among the Greeks, that is, glorify. But many Latin translators have rendered this passage as honorifica. At the same time, let us consider that a son and a servant in the Holy Scriptures are chosen by will, not by necessity of nature. For whoever receives the spirit of adoption becomes a son of God; but whoever receives the spirit of servitude becomes a servant of God in fear (Rom. VIII). Therefore, God desires first that we be His sons and that we do good willingly. […]

"There is a great distinction, then, between the fear that lacks for nothing, which is the treasure of wisdom and knowledge, and the one that is imperfect, which is called "the beginning of wisdom." This latter has punishment in itself, and it is cast out from the hearts of the perfect upon the advent of the fullness of love. For "there is no fear in love, but perfect loves casts out fear." And in fact, if the beginning of wisdom consists in fear, what but the love of Christ will be its perfection, which contains in itself the fear of perfect love and which is no longer called the beginning but rather the treasure of wisdom and knowledge? Therefore there are two degrees of fear. The one is for beginners—that is, for those who are still under the servile dread. In regard to this it is said, "The slave shall fear his master," and in the Gospel, "I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know what his master is doing." And consequently he says, "The slave does not remain in the house forever." For he is instructing us to pass from the fear of punishment to the fullest freedom of love and to the confidence of the friends and sons of God. And the blessed apostle, who had long since passed beyond the degree of servile fear, thanks to the power of the Lord's love, disdains lower things and professes that he has been endowed with greater goods. "For," he says, "God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power and love and self-control." Those who burned with perfect love of the heavenly Father and whom, from slaves, the divine adoption had already made sons he also exhorts in these words: "You have not received a spirit of slavery again in fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption, in which we cry out, 'Abba, Father.' "