From the Friars: Be Submissive

Today’s second reading from Ephesians five is quite controversial because Saint Paul is exhorting wives to be subject to their husbands. To understand this, it Is helpful to begin with the very inner life of the Holy Trinity. All three Divine Persons are One God yet they are distinguished by their relationship to each other. And those relationships are hierarchical. The Father is first, then the Son proceeds from Him and the Holy Spirit from the union between the Father and the Son. There is equality but an order of ranking.

We see this most clearly in the Incarnation itself. Jesus, Who is God, is obedient to the Father unto death. (Phil 2:8) He always does what is pleasing to Him. (Jn 8:29) But His obedience is so that the world may know that He loves the Father. (Jn 14:31) And, paradoxically, because of His submission all authority is given to Christ. (Mt 28:18) The Father longs to share, not dominate.

Therefore, love and obedience are in a way the same thing. God is love and the Will of God is always the loving thing. Hence, to obey God is to always choose the loving thing. If every man is under the headship of Christ and wives are under the headship of their husband, theoretically the good of all will be achieved.

We know the reality of this fallen world is quite different. Authority is abused and people are often dominated, manipulated, and treated as objects. The fact that women have suffered so much from abuses of authority has caused the reaction of the feminist movement. But the abuse of something does not make it bad in itself.

Jesus submitted to the authority of the Jewish leaders and Pontius Pilate, despite their self-seeking manipulation. This does not mean we are not to fight injustice, but to show us the highest and most powerful way of doing so. Not out of fear or weakness, but by the power of love, the world was redeemed by the One Who was obedient unto death.

The lives of Saint Monica and Saint Rita both show how the loving submission of a holy woman can conquer a tyrannical husband.

His ways are not our ways.

–Fr. Peter