July | 2011 | Blogger Priest

Can We Compare Mary to Jephthah’s Daughter?

Posted on July 19, 2011 by Father Joe

My mind races back to the days when as a young seminarian I studied theology at Catholic University. There were several ladies also taking classes and studying for degrees. When we studied the story of Jephthah’s daughter, my friend Theresa became agitated. She found the story in Judges 1:37-40 to be deeply disturbing. She wondered aloud if there might be some Scriptures that cannot be salvaged for Christian believers, today. In thanksgiving for his victory in battle, the Hebrew general pledges that the first who steps out the door of his home, he will sacrifice. He immediately laments his pledge because out steps his young daughter. She requests a short time to mourn her virginity and then we are told he did as he promised. Unlike the story of Abraham and Isaac, God does not stay his hand. It is a remnant story that betrays the fact that human sacrifice, while later regarded as offensive, had at one time been practiced by the Chosen People. As with a few other passages from the Bible, there was a debate during the formulation of the Lectionary for Mass that this story should be skipped. Nevertheless, while the Scriptures are edited and censored for polite sensibilities in the Lectionary, this reading was still included. It is terribly hard to preach upon. The young girl had courage and her father kept his promise to God; but as Christians, we are aware that some promises should not be made. The child mourns that she will never know the joys of being a wife and mother. It is a poignant and terrible story. Mary was probably not much older. Tradition has it that she had embraced celibacy and/or virginity as a servant of the Temple. This fuels the assumption by some authorities that Joseph was a much older man, betrothed to protect Mary in a male-oriented society. A friend of mine uses the story of the slaughtered girl to talk about the low premium placed on virginity in Jewish society in ancient days. We also see how virginity is embraced to honor God, either in a death to self (as with Mary) or in a physical death (as with Jephthah’s daughter). But I am of the mind that the story is too emotionally evocative for a level-headed analysis. It makes us very angry. How can the murder of the innocent ever please God?

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Mary’s Virginity in the Context of Jewish Understanding

Posted on July 18, 2011 by Father Joe

Virginity was associated with holiness and purity going back to Old Testament days. However, while it was insisted that this gift should be brought to the marriage bed undefiled, the main emphasis among the Jews was fruitfulness and progeny. The promiscuous woman was understood as damaged goods and unclean. The barren woman was viewed as cursed. We see this latter sentiment with Abraham and Sarah and in the New Testament among Zachariah and Elizabeth. Sacred tradition indicates a similar situation with Joachim and Ann, the parents of Mary. These women rejoiced because God gave them a child and took away their shame.

“Sons are a birthright from Yahweh, children are a reward from him” (Psalm 127:3).

“Your wife will be a fruitful vine within your house: your children will be like olive shoots around your table…may you see your children’s children” (Psalm 128: 3,6).

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Priestesses: Not Ordination but Subordination?

Posted on July 17, 2011 by Father Joe

What are we to make of St. Paul’s writings about women? Those who reject the inspiration of Scripture do not really care what he has to say. Others will try to distinguish changeable disciplines from doctrines, but not everyone draws the line in the same places. Many conservative voices might make light of hair coverings or even silencing women in churches, but still resist a more gender neutral partnership in marriage and more leadership roles for women in the Church. Are St. Paul’s teachings simply culturally conditioned or does his viewpoint reflect God’s timeless mind about matters.

St. Paul is the source for the major texts on the “subordination” of women. Nevertheless, critics of the status-quo of a male-only priesthood often quote his words about equality in grace found in Galatians. Paul is not schizophrenic. His words must not be forced to say things that he did not intend.

Regarding ministry and marriage, Paul is clear.

“What I want you to understand is that Christ is the head of every man, man is the head of woman, and God is the head of Christ . . . a man . . . is the image of God and reflects God’s glory; but woman is the reflection of man’s glory . . . and man was not created for the sake of woman, but woman was created for the sake of man. . . . However, though woman cannot do without man, neither can man do without woman, in the Lord; woman may come from man, but man is born of woman — both come from God” (1 Cor. 11:3, 7-8, 11-12).

Speaking of the organization of spiritual gifts, he demands:

“Women are to remain quiet at meetings since they have no permission to speak; they must keep in the background as the Law itself lays it down. . . . Anyone who claims to be a prophet or inspired ought to recognize that what I am writing to you is a command from the Lord” (1 Cor. 14:34, 37).

Illustrating his sincerity, he repeats himself to Timothy:

“During instruction a woman should be quiet and respectful. I am not giving permission for a woman to teach or to tell a man what to do. A woman ought not to speak, because Adam was formed first and Eve afterwards, and it was not Adam who was led astray but the woman who was led astray and fell into sin. . . .” (1 Tm. 2:1-14).

St. Paul is regarded as infamous in certain circles for his view of marriage:

“Wives should regard their husbands as they regard the Lord, since as Christ is head of the Church and saves the whole body, so is a husband the head of his wife; and as the Church submits to Christ, so should wives to their husbands, in everything. Husbands should love their wives as Christ loved the Church and sacrificed himself for her, to make her holy. . . . In the same way husbands must love their wives as they love their own bodies; for a man to love his wife is for him to love himself. A man never hates his own body, but he feeds it and looks after it; and that is how Christ treats the Church, because it is his body — and we are its living parts. . . . This mystery has many implications; but I am saying it applies to Christ and the Church” (Ephesians 5:22-25, 28-32).

Leaving out commentary, I suspect some readers are already angry. These Scripture texts seem to fly in the face of what many know of the contemporary experience. I have known Christian feminists who gave blunt appraisals of St. Paul. They saw him as sexist and utterly patriarchal. I still remember one frustrated woman of WIT (a group at Catholic University called “Women in Theology”) who just admitted angrily, “I hate Paul!” If she could, she would have torn his writings out of her bible. But there is the catch. St. Paul is in the Bible and many of us believe that we must wrestle even with those texts that challenge us and are hard to accept. St. Paul is the great apostle to the Gentiles. The Pauline community and its beliefs will become pivotal to the Church’s understanding of sin and the measure of faith, ministry, the family and the Church.

The analogy of the spousal relationship is directly attached to Christ’s relationship to the Church. It is this analogy that is operative at Mass, wherein the priest signifies Christ, the head of the Church; the congregation is immediately reflective of the rest of the Mystical Body. The priest is one with the divine bridegroom; the assembly, representative of the bride of Christ, is identified with the Church. As I have mentioned before, unless one is going to overlook “sacramental lesbianism,” a woman cannot fulfill the function of priest in such a theological framework.

St. Paul wanted women to know their faith and to hand it on in the domestic setting; however, they were not allowed to offer the official teaching that is associated with the presbyter at liturgy. Paul makes it definitively clear that this prescription is tied up with the God-given order of creation (1 Cor. 11:7; Gn. 2:18-24). He further admits to a specified “command from the Lord” (1 Cor. 14:37). Although this command is not known to us, it should not be dismissed. Paul is not a liar. Christ is perceived as the ultimate author of a corpus of religious teaching that must be handed on in exact detail and preserved by the teachers of faith (1 Cor. 11:23, 15:1-2; 2 Tm. 1:13). Several times Paul encountered serious assaults upon his person and office (1 Cor. 1:12, 4:3; 2 Cor. 10-12); if he had invented this “command from the Lord” to shore up his arguments, he would quickly have been stripped of his authority and unveiled as a deceiver. Such did not happen.

Will we allow the truths of Christ via St. Paul to speak to us today? I pray it will be so. I only hope it is not too late. As an experiment I read these passages to several fine women in my parish and even the most docile took some offense. How deep is the secular infection in the hearts and minds of believers? How can we recover St. Paul so that traditional values about ministry and the home can be preserved while women might still be empowered and given the respect they deserve?

POPE JOHN PAUL II: “I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church’s faithful” (Ordinatio Sacerdotalis).

Filed under: Bible, Catholic, Church, Priestesses, Priests, Sacraments, Sexuality, Women Priests | 5 Comments »

Apostolic Tradition Vetoes Priestesses

Posted on July 16, 2011 by Father Joe

The early Christian community kept faith with the practice of Jesus in depending entirely on male priests. The Scriptural witness is ratified at every turn. Although the Virgin Mary occupied an honored status among them (Acts 1:14), there was never any hint that she should replace Judas as one of the twelve (Acts 1:15-26). Further, on Pentecost, despite the universal showering of the Holy Spirit upon the infant Church (Acts 1:13-14), it was left to “Peter and the Eleven” to take on the initial preaching of the Gospel (Acts 2:1, 14). Looking to St. Paul, it is evident that he relied heavily upon the help of women, maybe even more than Jesus did. Paul makes known Phoebe who served the Church in Cenchreae and also many other women who assisted him in his labors (Romans 16:1-16). He counted Priscilla and her husband Aquila among his friends (Romans 16:3), even entrusting to them the completion of his instruction of Apollos in Ephesus (Acts 18:26). Paul, who said some formidable things about the place of women, is left speechless when Lydia insists that he receive her hospitality at Philippi (Acts 16:14). The great apostle takes it for granted that men and women alike will pray and prophesy when the community gathers for public worship (1 Cor. 11:4-5, 13). Yet, even in the face of all this, he insisted that the leadership in the community and the official teaching come from male office-bearers. I mention all this because sometimes certain post-Christian and anti-patriarchal feminists caricature the early Church as a woman-haters’ club. Far from it, the apostolic community was in many ways more liberating for its women than pagan society; however, women were still not ordained. They felt the very real need to perpetuate the model of ministry established by Christ.

POPE JOHN PAUL II: “I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church’s faithful” (Ordinatio Sacerdotalis).

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The Catholic View of Mary’s Virginity

Posted on July 15, 2011 by Father Joe

While Mary knew a preservative redemption and we are granted a normal chronological redemption (in the normal course of events), the agent is the same, Jesus Christ and his Cross. While the majority of Catholics are aware that the Immaculate Conception is in reference to Mary in the womb and not Christ, there are a few which confuse the title and doctrine. Similarly, many have a hard time distinguishing the Assumption of Mary from the Ascension of Christ.

Ignorance is even more widespread regarding the perpetual virginity of Mary. Some Catholics subscribe to the false Protestant assumption that the brethren in the Gospels were children of Joseph and Mary. The Lateran Synod of 649 AD defined the unique virginity of Mary. The definition is somewhat challenging to us today for many reasons. We tend to associate virginity with an absence of sexual activity. While this is certainly an essential component of the definition, it also places great store in Mary being physically intact. At the risk of being blunt, many women rupture or lose the virginal membrane due to physical exercise or medical intervention. However, we would still regard such “good girls” as virgins. The definition apparently insists that Mary was physically and morally a virgin.

Mary’s virginity is measured three ways: before the birth of Christ, during the birthing, and post-birth.

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The Story of Mankind Changes with Mary

Posted on July 14, 2011 by Father Joe

Many of us recall from our children’s catechism that the fall of Adam and Eve brought sin and death into the world. The story of Genesis was a crossroads in the history of humanity. Suddenly upon the scene there arose creatures that were both intensely self-aware and, having been made in God’s image, could know and love God in return. They opted to turn back in upon themselves. It was as if a creature suddenly stood on two feet to look up in wonder only to quickly drop back on all fours like the beasts, denying his nature and dignity. A pattern was broken and a new one established. There would be no preternatural gifts, no direct vision or immediate friendship with God, no harmony in either men or the creation around him, no life without death, and no awareness without suffering and pain. What would remain would be the struggle to embrace virtue against the increasing current of selfishness and temptation. Generations to come would be born in pain and concupiscence. This tragic story begins to be rewritten in Mary for whom the promised redemption first takes place. The Second Vatican Council reaffirms this Marian doctrine:

“Enriched from the first instant of her conception with the splendor of an entirely unique holiness, the virgin of Nazareth is hailed by the heralding angel, by divine command as “full of grace” (Lumen Gentium, no. 56).

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The Mind of Christ About Priestesses

Posted on July 13, 2011 by Father Joe

Emotionalism often pollutes the debate about women’s ordination. As in so many liberal dissents, there seems to be the impression that shouting and acts with shock value can replace rational discussion and humble obedience to the Magisterium and the sacred deposit. Personal biases spouted in slogans will help no one. The sober question has to be asked, what does our Lord reveal to us about this question in the Scriptures and faith of the Church? It is crystal clear that he did not call any women into the number of the apostles (Mark 3:13-19).

First, this fact alone takes on heightened importance because certain women accompanied the group on their journeys and financed their needs (Luke 8:2-3). None of them were given priesthood.

Second, Jesus did not hesitate in dismissing then current religious and cultural attitudes in relating to females. He disregarded the hemorrhaging woman’s legal impurity (Matthew 9:20); he allowed the disreputable woman in Simon the Pharisee’s house to approach him (Luke 7:37); he sided with the adulteress (John 8:11); and he undermined the Mosaic Law in espousing the equal rights of men and women in marriage, protecting the woman from abandonment in divorce (Mark 10:2; Matthew 19:3). Obviously, Jesus could not be coerced by societal prejudices to prohibit women priests; it must have been his own choice.

Third, he illustrated in his stories an unheard of empathy with the lives of women as in the parable of the good housewife (Luke 15:8-10) and of the widow before a crooked judge (Luke 18:1-8). It can be assumed that Jesus did not feel that his exclusion of women from holy orders was any real slight to them.

Fourth, as his disciples, many of the women showed a courage greater than that of the apostles, even so far as to stand at the foot of his Cross (Mark 15:40-41). Individual qualifications apparently took a backseat to other concerns; perhaps the inability of female humanity to image Christ as the head of the Church? Does not the laity, as feminine, still look upon the Cross now transformed into an altar at which the priest renders Christ’s sacrifice? Yes.

Fifth, they were the first to proclaim the Good News on Easter morning, and to the apostles themselves (Matthew 28:7; Luke 24:9; Jn 20:11). Does this not tell us how much the Lord prizes the laity in the Mystical Body? Maybe the problem is not that we esteem the ordained priesthood too highly, but that we look upon the laity too disdainfully. The bulk of all evangelism is still done by the people in the pews. However, despite all this, the women were not mentioned at the Last Supper (Mark 14:17). Surrounded only by the apostles, this absence is made all the more striking since the Passover is a family meal at which women and children were customarily present (Exodus 12:1-14).

In light of this evidence, one can readily conclude that the exclusion of women from priesthood must have been freely and directly willed by Christ.

POPE JOHN PAUL II: “I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church’s faithful” (Ordinatio Sacerdotalis).

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The Dogma of the Immaculate Conception

Posted on July 12, 2011 by Father Joe

While the dogma of the Immaculate Conception was defined late in the Church’s history, its roots go back to the earliest days. The early Church fathers spoke about Mary as the new Eve because they viewed her as possessing the same original grace and justice. Sentiments about Mary’s purity and sinlessness are found in Tertullian, St. Justin, St. Irenaeus, St. Ambrose and St. Augustine.

Although the belief was generally accepted, the Church often spoke about the Immaculate Conception in an indirect or reverse manner. This was because there was a serious debate about how it could be true since Jesus is the Way and the Truth and the Life. He alone is the Savior. None are saved except through him and his Cross. Given the lack of precision, the Church just refused to talk about Mary in the context of sin. Even the Council of Trent insisted that while we could speak of original sin as infecting all mankind, the council fathers did not intend to include the “immaculate” Virgin Mary in this discussion.

The great theologian John Dun Scotus (1265-1308 AD) would set the groundwork for a later definition by speaking about how the redemptive work of Christ reached back into human history and preserved Mary from sin in honor of her place in salvation history as the Mother of Jesus Christ, the Messiah and Lord.

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The Seed of the Woman versus Satan

Posted on July 11, 2011 by Father Joe

The devil is going to lose his grip. The tide is turning in the war with Satan:

“Then the dragon was angry with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and bear testimony to Jesus” (Revelation 12:17).

There is a clear demarcation between sides. Saluted by an angel as “full of grace,” the image is one of perpetual opposition to the serpent or dragon. The great fight has begun and the war will be won in Christ. Her spiritual children, the saints and martyrs, will offer themselves along with Christ in this warfare between powers and principalities.

This opposition between Satan and the seed of the woman, Christ, is indicative of the opposition between good and evil. Christianity does not really speak of metaphorical clashes between bad and good, life and death, sin and grace. As with the term of our faith and salvation itself, this tension is real and personal. We are not envisioning any kind of oriental principles or forces. Further, there is no equality or balance between good and evil. Whatever scenario is played out, the game is fixed.

The ultimate winner will always be God.

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Immaculate Conception & Handmaid of the Lord

Posted on July 10, 2011 by Father Joe

It is impossible for us to know with certainty what Mary appreciated through any infused science or knowledge. I suspect that God wanted to preserve her simplicity and innocence as a Jewish maiden in the particular culture where she found herself. She was filled with faith and may have given herself to the service of God’s temple. The Annunciation is a real awakening of her purpose but it would not change who Mary was all along. She does not say that she “will be” God’s servant, but confesses that she has always been “the handmaid of the Lord.” Everything was prepared for this day when she would become the special vehicle for God. She could not save herself but was preserved from sin by our Lord’s saving power reaching backward from the Cross and touching her in the womb of St. Ann. Despite this singular honor, she is quite aware of the vast gulf between the Creator and his creatures. She may not understand but she accepts what God has planned for her. She does not feel worthy because no creature could be worthy of such a favor. Mary’s yes to the angel Gabriel, really her free assent to God, was enabled by her condition of holiness. Otherwise, she could not speak for all mankind. The wound from the primordial rebellion must be healed. It has already happened for this one special daughter.

The actual work and battle must take place in the Paschal Mystery of Christ.

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