J.M.J. Women
are our sisters.
What mangled view our society has of women. Our
Blessed Lady provides the correct understanding of true femininity. And
only by her intercession we will be extracted from the disturbing morass
of confusion that envelopes us.
In our contemporary era, there are many competing images of women and womanhood.
Who is a woman and with what is she to be involved?
This question, although its answer may seem obvious, has received widely varying responses from diverse sources: Playboy Magazine, Planned Parenthood of America, the National Organization for Women and Saint John Paul II, to name a few.
Playboy Magazine considers physically “attractive” women (in
its estimation) to be akin to goddesses to be coveted for their ability
to provide sexual pleasure.
Planned Parenthood of America declares that the “abortion decision” is
to be made by women alone, ignoring the facts that men are responsible
for conception and that abortion unfailingly takes the lives of a third
party—innocent preborn children.
The National Organization for Women contends that women have been
traditionally oppressed, especially because of their role as
child-bearer. Therefore, they should now be aggressive in reasserting
their “rights” to “reproductive freedom,” among other equality issues.
Finally, Saint John Paul II, in harmony with Sacred Scripture and the
Apostolic Tradition, believes women to be holy daughters of the Creator
who possess an intrinsic beauty and value because they, like men, have
been fashioned in the imago Dei—“the image of God.”
In the midst of these opposing viewpoints, we would do well to remember
one simple but profound truth: the Almighty Lord, in the words of Saint John Paul II in his Letter to Women of June 29, 1995, has a
“mysterious plan regarding the vocation and mission of women in the
world.” Each and every woman—regardless of her role as mother, wife,
daughter, sister, consecrated person, virgin—is remarkable and special
in God’s eyes. Saint John Paul II, in pondering the dignity of each
woman, wrote: “Through the insight which is so much a part of your
womanhood you enrich the world’s understanding and help to make human
relations more honest and authentic” (number 2).
Where would we be without women? The astounding realization—but perhaps
not too astonishing, upon prayerful reflection—is that we owe women our
very physical lives. Our mothers and fathers conceived us and brought
us forth. We did not exist until they provided the physical matter (the
seed and the egg) and God furnished the spiritual matter (the rational,
immortal soul).
The Ever-Virgin Mother of God is the only woman hailed as both Virgin
and Mother. She, more than any other person, cooperated freely in the
inscrutable design of the Maker by yielding to the promptings of the
Holy Spirit, thereby living with a zest to do good that is at once
amazing and inspirational. Our Blessed Lady teaches us how to put aside
our own projects so that Christ can work in us His inimitable plan of
salvation.
As the Church praises God for Our Lady, we also offer our gratitude for
women and womanhood. As the Holy Father expressed in his August 15,
1988 Apostolic Letter Mulieris dignitatem (The Dignity of Women),
the Church “desires to give thanks to the Most Holy Trinity for the
‘mystery of woman’ and for every woman—for all that constitutes the
eternal measure of her feminine dignity, for ‘the great works of God,’
which throughout human history have been accomplished in and through
her” (number 31).
The Madonna is, in the words of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (Lumen Gentium),
the stellar example of “obedience, faith, hope and burning charity”
(number 61) for all women, no matter their state in life. She reflects
Christ and instructs all her daughters to do the same. Mary is the model
for all peoples, but especially for women.
When we recite the Most Holy Rosary, let us pray for women everywhere, that they may imitate Mary in her countless virtues.
Where would we be without women? No Mary . . . no mothers . . . no
wives . . . no sisters . . . no daughters . . . no consecrated women . .
. no virgins . . . how impoverished our world—and depleted Heaven—would
be!
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