Holy Impatience

Holy Impatience

A couple of weeks ago, after Sunday liturgy, I attended a panel consisting of young women about their experiences, their needs and their hopes for the future of the church. These women ranged in age from early twenties to mid-forties. The one idea that has stuck with me is one woman’s call for Holy Impatience. She called for us to be impatient, but with a twist of holiness.

We are tired of waiting for women to become full equal partners in our church. We are tired of the complementary status that Rome keeps putting on women’s roles. We need to keep knocking–nay, pounding–on the doors of the Vatican to let us in.

During this season of Lent, let us call to mind exactly why Jesus was crucified. He was a threat to the religious and civil authorities of the day because he preached about the reign of God and his inclusive life-style lived and breathed just the opposite of patriarchal dominance. The cross is a challenge to the natural rightness of male-dominating rule. Jesus portrayed the exact opposite of a powerful man and paid the steep price.

Bernard Haring writes:

… throughout history men have far outstripped women in domineering attitudes. Hence, it might be appropriate, according to our own limited human thinking, that Christ became a man to break the fetters of sexism by his absolute humility and liberty for others. Surely, anyone who wants to overemphasize Christ’s maleness in order to establish prerogatives of males (“priests”) over females has not understood Jesus as the liberator of all people, men and women, and has not understood the way he liberated us.

Thus, the problem is not that Jesus was a man, but that why are more men are not like Jesus. The patriarchy should take note of this and become more Christ-like rather than self-defining as the only true leaders of the Catholic church.

Let us keep pounding on the doors, because if we don’t, who will?

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