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How
do you live in San Francisco and have such a trite understanding of feminism?
Catholicism makes little room for the thinking woman or for that matter the
thinking man. The request of equality is a basic one and is not based on
making God pay. . . . Denial and love are not one. Life is about living not
abstaining. You are one of the non-adaptive, narrow-minded interpreters of
the tradition and history that make Catholicism ritualistic, patriarchal
and hierarchical.
 ctually, if you really dare to
think about it, for ages men have been saying, “Life is
about living, not abstaining” and women (and, in San Francisco, other
men as well) have been paying the price all along.
And so it is precisely because
I live in San Francisco that I understand feminism
so profoundly.
The Dignity of
Male and Female
Now, if you go right back to
the beginning, you will find that God created men and women equal. In Genesis
1:27 we read that God created man, and that “man” is male
and female. Moreover, in Genesis 2:18 ff. we read about God’s
plan for those male and female individuals: God wanted to give
“the man” a “partner.” Notice this carefully.
God made the woman to be a partner—not a slave and not a
playmate—for the man.
Christ, therefore, insisted on
the dignity of human relations. We read in Matthew 5:28 that He even raised
lust to the level of the high sin
of adultery.
The early Church said
nothing to contradict the equality of men and women. Ephesians 5:21
instructs all Christians to “be subordinate to one another out of reverence
for Christ.” Only in Holy Matrimony—not in any other social
relationship—are wives specifically instructed to be subordinate to
their husbands (Ephesians 5:22; Colossians 3:18; 1 Peter 3:1), but husbands
are instructed to treat their wives with love (Ephesians 5:28)—and
real love, if you think about it, demands
equality.
Moreover, Christ taught that
neither spouse should be seen as mere property and that the bond between
the husband and wife cannot be broken as if one person were legally disposing
of property.
The Bond of Holy
Matrimony
All of this simply shows how
the bond of Holy Matrimony reflects the loving bond between Christ and His
Church: the man represents Christ, and the woman represents the Church who
must be obedient to Him..
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In all of nature,
a male fertilizes a female’s egg so that the egg can grow and develop
into an independent organism. For humans in particular, the woman nurtures
and protects the baby as it grows within her body; then, as the child becomes
independent from its mother, the man provides the guidance and instruction
of a father to prepare the child to function
productively in the world in service to God the Father.
This natural,
reproductive function between a man and a woman serves as a signification
for Christ’s relation to His Church: Christ provides Sacramental
“fertilization” to souls so that they can grow and develop within
our mother the Church, and, ultimately, after death be received into the
Father’s presence forever. |
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Your
Cross
And why did Christ not take any
women for Apostles? And why did He call God the Father? Well, these
are the elements of God’s reality. If these facts pain you, then consider
it your cross and bear it. Take that cross you wear around your neck like
a piece of jewelry and start carrying it. If you
believe that Christ is God—and if you don’t
then you are self-deceived in calling yourself a Christian—then you
must believe He did and said these things for a
reason.
For My thoughts
are not your thoughts,
nor are your ways My ways, says the
LORD,
As high as the heavens are above the earth,
so high are My ways above your ways
and My thoughts above your thoughts. |
—Isaiah 55:8–9 |
Yes, you could complain in bitterness
that you’re not getting what you want from life, but if you think
about it, the purpose of life is not to get what you want by denying
the cross because you don’t want to deny yourself. The purpose of life
is to serve God with pure
love, regardless of what happens to you or how
the world treats you, so that your sacrifices can
help to lead others to true healing from the bitterness
they feel about their emotional pain.
No
advertising—no sponsor—just the simple truth . . .
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