Thursday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

 Lectionary: 332

The LORD God said:
"It is not good for the man to be alone.
I will make a suitable partner for him."
.... So the LORD God cast a deep sleep on the man, and while he was asleep, he took out one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. The LORD God then built up into a woman the rib that he had taken from the man. When he brought her to the man, the man said:
"This one, at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called 'woman,' for out of 'her man' this one has been taken."
That is why a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two of them become one flesh.

 In  my reading I have often heard of remote, extinct societies where women were regarded as equal to men, and treated with great respect. In some legends, it was before the Great Transformation when prehistoric man realized he had done something to cause a woman -- who was certainly not his woman -- to be pregnant. Up till that time, he revered women as demigods with mysterious and vital power to give birth. That society was Inuit, Celtic, or Native American or Indian -- perhaps African -- but certainly not European. After his great discovery, he began to dominate and disrespect her. She was only the field where he planted his seed, and not his helpmate or a suitable partner.    

Frankly, I doubt it. That fabled moment in human history sounds like Shangri-la to me; and too good to be true. The males with greater height, weight, and strength want to dominate women, smaller men, and children, regardless of their culture, societal norms, or ethos. 

I think the Jewish scriptures get it more accurately: since the beginning women brought forth children in pain and yet desired the men who ruled over them. The imbalance and unfairness are the inevitable result of our sin. If there was a blissful equality before sin entered our history, it didn't last long and left no trace. It was only God's dream for us, a vision yet to be imagined or realized. 

But it is a tantalizing promise that remains near enough to be seen and impossibly beyond our reach. So close, yet so far. Men and women see equality differently but cannot reconcile their differing visions. They experiment endlessly, discovering innumerable formulas that work for different couples  for awhile; but do not work for any given society. 

After the first two chapters of Genesis, that fabled equality of men and women disappears from the scriptures, except perhaps for the home in Nazareth, and among the celibates in Bethany. 

Saint Paul imagines it for married couples in Ephesians 5:31:

For no one hates his own flesh but rather nourishes and cherishes it, even as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. “For this reason a man shall leave [his] father and [his] mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”

But the extended passage (Ephesians 5: 21-33) is controverted. And the Apostle leaves it unresolved with a mystical vision, 

"This is a great mystery, but I speak in reference to Christ and the church."

Perhaps we can be satisfied for the time being with the promise of our sacraments. Just as we believe the Blessed Sacrament is the most holy body and blood of our Savior, Baptism is a rebirth, and Anointing is healing: so do we see the Wonderful Works of God  in the Sacrament of Marriage. Every couple is different, of course, because every individual is unique; and they work out their salvation differently. But equality is not so far beyond their reach as for those who must admire it from afar. 

And sometimes their life together points to Christ and his church, and we're astounded by what we see.