Thursday of the Third Week in Advent

 Lectionary: 190 

Raise a glad cry, you barren one who did not bear,
Break forth in jubilant song, you who were not in labor,
For more numerous are the children of the deserted wife 
Than the children of her who has a husband, says the Lord.

In a recent interview with the Jesuit magazine, America, Pope Francis gave an explanation as to why women are not ordained as priests. Although not everyone will change their opinions after reading his remarks, they deserve study and reflection. An ideology which supposes that people can alter their sexuality with chemicals and surgery would not comprehend this tradition. 

The Holy Father's remarks are grounded in scripture passages like today's reading from the Prophet Isaiah, in which Jerusalem is described like a barren woman and a deserted wife. With the fruitful blessings of God she can expect to enlarge the space for her tent as she has innumerable children, She will spread out her tent cloths unsparingly; lengthen its tent ropes and make firm its stakes.

For you shall spread abroad to the right and to the left;
your descendants shall dispossess the nations
and shall people the desolate cities.

Pope Francis explains that women represent this fecund receptivity in the Church which is Marian, while men represent the Petrine way of being, which is ministerial. Giving and receiving must be recognized as essential and inseparable. Both are necessary, because a gift which is not accepted with appreciation and gratitude is only a burden, and may be a curse. 

Certainly, a culture which views male and female as interchangeable, and marriage as a union of similarities, cannot recognize the value of both giving and receiving. "Homosexual marriage" can only be an oxymoron; it's not even sexual since the pair does not comprise a complete reproductive system. In such a society the words husband and wife lose all meaning, as do male and female. 

Far worse is the threat to women in general as male power become the preferred mode of being for everyone. I know one gentleman who insists that women become "useless" after menopause while men can continue to beget children into their latter years. As intelligent as he is, and despite his affection for his wife, he seems oblivious to the violence he suggests against older women. Like many in this culture, he does not consider the deeper meaning of his facile opinions. 

Isaiah received the image of the Israelite people as the spouse of God from the Prophet Hosea; it was passed along to Jeremiah and the New Testament prophets, and thence to the Church. The tenth century founder monk, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, revived that tradition as he celebrated the Virgin Mary and her role in our salvation. 

We men and women of the Church are the spouse of God. We receive God's prodigal blessings and healing mercy after we have accepted our very being. If our self-conception is only masculine -- that is, one of initiating, animating, and empowering -- without recognition of our feminine receptivity before God, we neutralize our effectiveness. Our blessings threaten to curse as we try to overpower incomprehension, reluctance, and stubbornness. This model cannot accept salvation; its "Christ" would insist on rising up. He would not allow himself to be raised from the dead by anyone but himself. 

Advent teaches us to wait upon the Lord, expectant and expecting that our dry, barren prayers might be honored and made fruitful by the mercy of God.