A GREAT CLOUD OF WITNESSES HEBREWS 12:1
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses,
let us rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us
and persevere in running the race that lies before us.
INTRODUCTION
This month of August we have celebrated two feasts of Mary Mother of God. Mary is the model to all women saints in the great cloud of witnesses. Mary’s devotion and prayer life was exemplar!
When she asked Jesus’ assistance at Cana wedding feast fully confident that Jesus would answer her and He did with gallons and gallons of good wine. Mary is the best intercessor with Jesus and so are many of the women in our lives Grandmothers, Mothers, Sisters, Wives, Aunts…… Our mothers are praying for us right now because that is what mothers do.
COMMENTARY
Where would the Church be without Mother Mary, Mother Teresa,\Therese, the Little Flower, Faustina, Bernadette. Joan of Arc, and Clare of Assisi to name a few women in the “cloud of witnesses.”
There are certainly passages in the Old and New Testament that could be interpreted as painting women as less than equal to men. But that was in a culture thousands of years ago in the Middle East. We would have a better understanding of women’s place in God’s kingdom (Church) by focusing more on Jesus’ interchanges with women in the Gospels.
Jesus, himself, did not discriminate against women but engaged them in His Public Ministry: Jesus raised the widow’s son at a funeral procession in Nain Luke 7:11; Jesus healed the woman suffering years of blood loss Mark 5:24-34; and forgave the Woman caught in adultery John 8:1-11 without any discrimination.
Breaking the sexist and racial customs of his day, Jesus spoke with the Samaritan woman at the well, offering her “living water”
John 4:5-42.
JESUS AND THE SAMARITAN WOMAN AT THE WELL
To the degree that a Christian treats women in a discriminating or exploitive way, they separate themselves from Jesus Christ. Jesus treated women with openness, respect, acceptance, and tenderness. In this way he honored the dignity that women have always possessed according to God’s plan
WOMEN MINISTRY IN THE CHURCH OF JESUS
Over 85 percent of those responsible for altar preparation are women. Over 75 percent of adult Bible study leaders and participants are women. Over 85 percent of those who lead or assist in ministries designed to help the poor, visit the sick, comfort the grieving, and minister to the handicapped are women.
PAUL LETTER TO EPHESIANS
Women have had a particular problem with St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians 5:22-25 that talks about wives being subordinate to husbands, kind of a poor way to put it for 21st century folks. Early Church Fathers said that Scripture can be rightly interpreted in a variety of ways, but that any understanding of a passage that undermined love of God or love of neighbor ought to be rejected.
Paul is really not placing women in a slavish role to their husbands but trying to compare a marriage couple to the Church the bride, and Christ the bridegroom. The key verse is verse 25, “Husbands love your wives, even as Christ loved the church and handed himself over for her”
The Catholic Church teaches the proper recipient of Holy Orders is a baptized male as Jesus is. The reservation of priestly ordination to men is perhaps the grievance most often brought up by critics of the Church. The Church does not discriminate against women. Are women less holy than men, of course not, less intellectually capable, of course not?
While on earth, Jesus ordained only men, Women were among the earliest and most courageous followers of Jesus, yet he did not call them to be among the Twelve. Even his own Mother, who according to Catholic belief is the greatest human person in all of history, was not among the Twelve nor ordained a priest.
Jesus’ Church today cannot go beyond Jesus. Some will argue it is a cultural thing. We don’t live in First Century Middle East. But as I stated earlier Jesus was not bound by the usual social norms and broke them all the time. Also women priestesses of pagan gods were common place in the time of Jesus.
CONCLUSION
The First Letter to the Corinthians (I Corinthians 12:12) indicates, just as the human body has different members and each member a different purpose, so, too, the various parts of the body of Christ have many missions, prophets, teachers, healers, helpers, administrators…, all essential, valuable, and vital for life of Church, Christ’s Body.
The bottom line is this…. most saints in heaven are not ordained clergy. The layperson can participate actively and fully in the Church as a layperson, and may they do so with vigor and zeal! The Spirit bestows different gifts on different people. Below are just a few women saints that have gone before us and pray as intercessors.
St Monica Model of Prayer
St Monica the Mother of St. Augustine is remembered and honored for her outstanding Christian virtues of grieving mothers, difficult marriages, victims of abuse and conversion of relatives.
St Therese of Lisieux (Little Flower)
Model of Faith
At the heart of Therese’s understanding of the spiritual life is the principle that holiness can be appreciated and accomplished not only in the performance of mighty deeds but in a willing surrender to the purposes of God as we engage the seemingly ordinary experiences of life.
Mother Theresa of Calcutta Model of Works
St Theresa did amazing works of charity…feeding the poor. nursing the sick and housing the homeless through her order, The Missionaries of Charity, for over 45 years.