Tuesday, January 15, 2008

In yesterday's first post, I related part of a conversation I had with a visiting friend. That conversation has me this morning reading the Bible and looking up what I wrote for a CatholicExchange article published in April 2006 on Ephesians 5 (it appears the link is no longer available.)

Here's the part of my article that I want to revisit:

After God has found Adam and Eve in their guilt, God admonishes Eve, saying: "I will multiply thy sorrows, and thy conceptions: in sorrow shalt thou bring forth children and thou shalt be under thy husband's power; he shall have dominion over you." The natural order has been broken and thus true charity is turned into desires ans struggles for power. However the dominion of man over woman that god admonishes Eve with is not the same subjection St. Paul talks about-for St. Paul, Apostle and bishop of the Church, is raising women out of the sorrow bequeathed them by Eve.

When I was in conversation the other day, I wasn't sure how I dealt with the OT reference to man's dominion over women vs. St. Paul's teaching in Ephesians. I feared that I had tried to force them into the same box. However, I do see now that I was guided around that error. What does come home to me again is that "headship" (if you will) is another name for service. The head of the home has a vocation of service, the heart of the home receives, as is her vocation.

Thus, much work to be done...

Oremus pro invicem!

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