Catholic Lectionary
Sunday, August 23, 2015
Today's second reading is taken from Paul's Letter to the Ephesians.
It is a reading that "no one" believes any more, not even devout, church-going Catholics.
Its content is akin to the pictographic verses above and below although -- on the surface -- not as appalling.
I would venture that few priests (having become heavily reliant on women pastoral administrators) approve Paul's passage from Ephesians and similarly imagine that Catholic nuns (who rightly despise Timothy's silencing of women) shun Paul's insistence of the subordination of women.
In an "ideal world," there might be "something" to recommend Paul's view of heterosexual relationship.
But don't bet the farm!
But don't bet the farm!
Here is Paul's entire passage.
Reading 2 EPH 5:21-32
Brothers and sisters:
Be subordinate to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Wives should be subordinate to their husbands as to the Lord.
For the husband is head of his wife
just as Christ is head of the church,
he himself the savior of the body.
As the church is subordinate to Christ,
so wives should be subordinate to their husbands in everything.
Husbands, love your wives,
even as Christ loved the church
and handed himself over for her to sanctify her,
cleansing her by the bath of water with the word,
that he might present to himself the church in splendor,
without spot or wrinkle or any such thing,
that she might be holy and without blemish.
So also husbands should love their wives as their own bodies.
He who loves his wife loves himself.
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.
This is a great mystery,
but I speak in reference to Christ and the church.
Be subordinate to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Wives should be subordinate to their husbands as to the Lord.
For the husband is head of his wife
just as Christ is head of the church,
he himself the savior of the body.
As the church is subordinate to Christ,
so wives should be subordinate to their husbands in everything.
Husbands, love your wives,
even as Christ loved the church
and handed himself over for her to sanctify her,
cleansing her by the bath of water with the word,
that he might present to himself the church in splendor,
without spot or wrinkle or any such thing,
that she might be holy and without blemish.
So also husbands should love their wives as their own bodies.
He who loves his wife loves himself.
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.
This is a great mystery,
but I speak in reference to Christ and the church.
The core issue in this passage is authority.
Reading Paul's words in cultural context, men are "the authorities" -- the Christlike "head" -- and, given the impossibility of mutual subordination, Paul is either naive or mendacious when he enjoins "brothers and sisters" to "be subordinate to one another."
Reading Paul's words in cultural context, men are "the authorities" -- the Christlike "head" -- and, given the impossibility of mutual subordination, Paul is either naive or mendacious when he enjoins "brothers and sisters" to "be subordinate to one another."
"Sub" means below and two people cannot be below one another.
Nor does Paul want men to be subordinate.
He wants them to be superior... as "the head" is superior to the body.
He wants them to be superior... as "the head" is superior to the body.
Paul enjoins men to "cleanse" women, to make them "without blemish," to "sanctify" them.
In Paul's view, women -- but not men -- are "unclean, blemished" and in need of "sanctification."
Furthermore, it is men who are charged with the accomplishment of this goal.
In Paul's view, women -- but not men -- are "unclean, blemished" and in need of "sanctification."
Furthermore, it is men who are charged with the accomplishment of this goal.
Why Church Fathers Were So Negative About Sex
Early Christianity And Gender Equilibrium
Thus constellating the heterosexual "dominance-submission hierarchy," Paul, a Jew (who, prior to conversion, hunted Christians to kill them) clings to the primary importance of Jewish purificatory rites and sees women -- partly due to monthly menstruation -- as necessarily "unclean." http://www.openbible.info/topics/menstruation
In Jewish culture, uncleanness (real or perceived) is a condition that invokes moral contempt.
Revealingly, some exegetes argue that the bedrock reason for Yeshua's crucifixion was a widespread observation among contemporary Jews -- especially priests, lawyers and elders -- that he and his apostles were unclean and therefore an abomination before the Lord. (It is a notable characteristic of all three Abrahamic religions that if someone is "unclean," scripture provides ready justification for the execution of that person.)
Mark 7
New International Version (NIV)
That Which Defiles
7 The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus 2 and saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. 3 (The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders. 4 When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles.[a])
5 So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with defiled hands?”
6 He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written:
“‘These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
7 They worship me in vain;
their teachings are merely human rules.’[b]
but their hearts are far from me.
7 They worship me in vain;
their teachings are merely human rules.’[b]
8 You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.”
(Alan: Mark is the oldest of the gospels, written less than 30 years after Jesus' crucifixion.)
For me, the "meat" of Paul's reading today is the juxtaposition of the requirement that women be "docile" as made transparently clear in the Spanish language translation: "Por lo tanto, así como la Iglesia es dócil a Cristo, así también las mujeres sean dóciles a sus maridos en todo." "Therefore, as the church is docile to Christ, so also should women be docile to their husbands in everything."
Increasingly, I ponder the difference between Christians who are primarily motivated by "discipline" (in the ascetic, "willful" sense) and those who are motivated by love in the Augustinian sense: "Love and do what you will."
It is not surprising that institutionalists are disproportionately fond of discipline, whereas "enthusiasts" (literally those who are "en theos" "in God," ) rely on the movement of the spirit and see The Law (as, in other epistles, Paul himself sees it) as an anachronism in need of abolition.
Abolition Of The Law. The First In A Series of Catholic Lectionary Reflections
Notably, within institutions, iit is the institutionalists who "win the day." But the institutional pre-eminence of disciplines like "docility" and "subordination" do not -- in any way -- trump the primacy of Love, whatever the institutional hierarchs proclaim.
Institutionalists -- both leaders and "rank-and-file" -- pretend that dogmatic, doctrinal and legal disciplines are primary and they occupy positions of pomp and circumstance that make institutional grandeur "look like" it is central.
But in the end we either "love our enemies" and prioritize the physical needs of "the least of our brethren," or, we are abject failures.
But in the end we either "love our enemies" and prioritize the physical needs of "the least of our brethren," or, we are abject failures.
"They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules." Jesus of Nazareth
“The work of heaven alone is material; the making of a material world.
“The work of heaven alone is material; the making of a material world.
The work of hell is entirely spiritual.”
G.K. Chesterton
Pax On Both Houses: Compendium Of G.K. Chesterton Posts
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/10/pax-on-both-houses-gk-chesterton-posts.html
Pax On Both Houses: Compendium Of G.K. Chesterton Posts
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/10/pax-on-both-houses-gk-chesterton-posts.html
"Hey, Christian! How Many Of Jesus' Moral Stands Do You Approve? Take The Test!"
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2015/08/hey-christian-how-many-of-jesus-moral.html
An aside: I often wonder what became of the apostles' wives whose husbands essentially deserted them in order to wander, hippy-like, with an itinerant preacher for three years.
Alan: In the end, we all make of scripture what we will, perhaps literalists more so than others.
That said, it is also true that there is an ongoing conflict in scripture between "violence/repression/suppression" and "peace/openness" that reflects the collective authorship of most books.
In brief, there are those who would like to put an end to discussion and those who see ongoing conversation over bread and wine as the central, unending sacrament.
"Five Things That Shook The Foundations Of My Fundamentalist Faith"
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