Just like we grapple with our own mortality whenever we enter into childbirth. Even in this First World country, women still die in childbirth. Yes, we take that courageous risk to propagate the human species, lay our very lives on the line for the joy of holding a child. But we begin to learn the truth of love, of laying one's life down for another, from the days of adolescence. From the first day that our bodies bleed, we are in touch with the reality of blood and suffering, of bodies and lives which in certain ways operate beyond our understanding and our control. Whether we become biological mothers or not, we know we are called to help generate life in this world.
Which is why, when we know how courageous we can be, and we are, we struggle painfully with any erroneous teaching or system which tells us - or any of us, anywhere in this world - that we were created by God to be subordinate. That we were created to be only an adjunct of males, good for pleasure and propagation and housework. Somewhere in this world right now, women are being told that they are not worthy of schooling, voting, equal jobs for equal pay, or of having a voice in decisions which affect them. For women to be described and treated as having no worth outside of bedding and/or breeding , when there are vast areas of our beings, of who we are, which remain undeveloped, and unwanted, is not only hurtful, but sinful. These erroneous assumptions are even more painful when they result in our lack of representation in leadership, liturgy, and decision-making within our own Churches.
Sometimes insights from God lance like a lightening bolt. Here's one:
"The Catechism of the Catholic Church... proclaims that the teaching of Genesis is that 'the woman, 'flesh of his flesh,' i.e. his counterpart, his equal, his nearest in all things, is given to him by God as a 'helpmate'; she thus represents God from whom comes our help. (CCC 1605). Here, the Catechism reminds us that the word for 'helpmate' in Genesis is a term also used for God in the Old Testament. As representative of God, then, the wife can hardly be considered under the 'headship' of the husband." (Mary Aquin O'Neill, "Roles For Women In The Church," in "Catholic Women Speak: Bringing Our Gifts to the Table," Paulist Press.)
How many women realize that they are equal to men in being representatives of God? To be a representative of God is gift, privilege, responsibility. If women truly understood, accepted, and believed that they were representatives of God, what a blessed spiritual revolution would take place in our homes, our Churches, and our societies throughout the world. For women would no longer live out of the wound of being sinfully told they are subordinate. They would be led by the Holy Spirit, instead of by their woundedness, to become confident, uniquely gifted, and life-giving individuals.
Women who acknowledge they are representatives of God would accept and insist on equal authority in the home. They would insist on having an equal voice in making family decisions (including financial). They would enter creative conversations with their spouses in making fair arrangments for child-care, cooking, cleaning, and housekeeping (rather than assuming that these are "only women's work.") They would realize and accept the responsibility that they have a huge impact on their children's lives. They would have the courage to speak with powerful voices regarding the quality of their children's schooling and church-going. They would assume roles with influence in business and government. In that always delicate balancing act between being wives, mothers, and also talented individuals in their own right, they would courageously choose when and how to develop their own talents and leadership in various fields. They would accept the call of the Holy Spirit to lead, to guide, to generate life wherever the Holy Spirit led them.
One of the things which hinder women in recognizing their own importance and abilities is that they hear of so few female role models in the stories from the Bible used in Protestant and Catholic Church services. Yet there are many women's stories which could be restored to the Lectionary, the Biblical readings chosen to be used at Sunday services. We need a gender-balanced group of biblical scholars, and liturgists to decide which women's stories should be restored to the Lectionary.
"Contemporary biblical scholarship has uncovered important roles held by women in the early Jesus movement. Catholic women and men are edified to learn that Jesus included women in his Galilean discipleship and that women received the first commission to proclaim the resurrection. Luke 8: 1-3 tells us that Mary of Magdala, Joanna, Susanna, and many other women accompanied Jesus and ministered with him in Galilee. Yet this Lukan reading is rarely heard on Sunday....St. Paul worked closely with women leaders like Phoebe, Junia, Lydia, and Prisca. Unfortunately, Romans 16, a passage that names ten women and identifies some of them as deacons, apostles, and co-workers, is never proclaimed on a Sunday. Nor are the accounts of women leaders in the Acts of the Apostles (Lydia, Prisca, Tabitha), which are read only on the weekdays of Easter. As a result, most Catholics never hear about these important women who minister alongside Paul and Peter.
"And where are the biblical stories of the strong women leaders of salvation history? Couldn't we include the story of Shiprah and Puah, the Hebrew midwives who saved a nation of boy children, perhaps even Moses, by defying Pharoah's law to kill all male infants born to the enslaved Hebrews? Currently the Lectionary version of Exodus 1: 8-22 (Monday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time, Year 1), excises these valiant women by inexplicably omitting verses 15-21.
"Proclaiming Lectionary texts that exclude or distort the witness of women, particularly in a church where all priestly liturgical leadership is male, is dangerous for our daughters and our sons. Young girls can hardly avoid the notion that God must have created them less important than their brothers. If all-male liturgical leadership and Sunday Lectionary readings are subtly seeding subordination in our daughters, what is being planted in our sons?"
(Christine Schenk, "It's Not All About Eve: Women in the Lectionary" in "Catholic Women Speak: Bringing Our Gifts to the Table")
As I sat with my Sisterhood of the Mammogram, I quietly prayed Morning Prayer, using IBreviary on my phone, to keep inner peace and calm. I watched the dancing flames in a fireplace and thought of the Sacred Heart of Christ on fire with love for all people...."In Christ, we are neither male nor female - we are one in Christ." I wondered how many of the women around me feared that if they lost a breast, they would lose the love of the man in their lives, in a society that thinks of breasts more as objects of pleasure than sources of nourishment.
We women are beautiful bodies indeed - but so much more! Just as the men whose naked bodies get posted on Facebook are so much more than objects of pleasure and lust. When we truly love another, we love and respect the whole package: body, mind, emotions, spirit, gifts.
We are all enfleshed souls, dwelling places of God, and in and with God we have unlimited power to sow love and a taste of heaven in this world. Men and women together. Created by our Father to be Equal Representatives of God. Collaborators. One in Christ Jesus, through the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen. If not in my lifetime, still, Lord, let it be so.