Letter to Women

Understanding the immense dignity of women in God’s plan

Luke 1:39-47

Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said, “Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.” And Mary said: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my savior.”

          Sometimes certain people criticize the Catholic Church saying that we fail to respect women. Have you heard such comments, or maybe even made similar remarks yourself? Let me give you a few examples of these complaints. Some say that since the Church does not  allow women to become priests, this is a clear affront to women’s dignity. Obviously, there are no female bishops or popes, a fortiori. Others feel that the Church is too traditional in her views of marriage and family because the Church supports the man as “the head” of the household, following the archaic teaching of St. Paul in Ephesians 5. Wives and mothers are second class citizens in the home. Finally, some go so far as to say that even God discriminates against women because he made only women able to get pregnant and endure child-birth, while men sit comfortably in the waiting room, smoking cigars. Apparently, the Church does not dispute this, so she must be in favor of it.

          Today we celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and when we glance at Mary we see that such criticisms are baseless. They are false. I would suggest to you that Our Lady of Guadalupe proves how the Church honors and respects women more than everyone else. How exactly? First, this feast demonstrates how a woman is greater than any priest, bishop or even pope. In 1531, when St. Juan Diego opened his tilma (his cloth poncho) before the astonished eyes of Bishop Zumarraga and the incredulous prelate laid his eyes on the miraculous image of Guadalupe, what did he do? He knelt before her. He understood he was in the presence of someone who ranked higher than a Catholic bishop, namely, a woman. Secondly, even though many Catholic men fail to respect women who are their spouses at home, Catholic churches today are filled to the rafters with men on the Feast of Guadalupe. They come before Our Lady of Guadalupe, a woman, and beg for her prayers, they respect her deeply. Third, Our Lady of Guadalupe was pregnant when she appeared in Mexico, and precisely that pregnancy helped the indigenous Aztecs to abandon their practice of human sacrifices and believe in the true God. Think about it: how often does a pregnancy today help young husbands and wives to give up selfish pursuits and begin to attend church regularly and believe in the true God? In other words, pregnancy is not a curse but a blessing from God because it makes a woman into a walking miracle, in her womb is the cradle of life.

          Let me conclude with an excerpt from Pope John Paul II’s “Letter to Women,” from 1995 where a pope acknowledges the vital role women play in human history, even more than popes. The pope-saint wrote: “Progress usually tends to be measured according to the criteria of science and technology. Nor from this point of few has the contribution of women been negligible. Even so, this is not the only measure of progress, nor in fact is it the principle one. Much more important is the social and ethical dimension, which deals with human relations and spiritual values. In this area, which often develops in an inconspicuous way beginning with the daily relationships between people, especially women and family, society certainly owes much to the ‘genius of women’.” And the pontiff adds who stands at the pinnacle of this pyramid of the feminine genius, namely, Mary. He writes: “The Church sees in Mary the highest expression of the ‘feminine genius’ and she finds in her a source of constant inspiration” (italics in the original, no. 9).

          My friends, if God were ever to write a letter to women, it would be called “the Blessed Virgin Mary.”  She is God’s final word about women, and all he intended them to be.  By the way, she would also be God’s “letter to men” about women, for that matter. The Catholic Church always esteems women more than anyone else.

          Praised be Jesus Christ!