About thirty years ago, when I served as vocation director for our diocese, members of a particular religious order visited Kansas City to recruit future priests. They asked my help to secure a home where some young men could gather to learn about their order. A wonderful couple stepped up to graciously host them. After the event, the hosts told me that everything went well except, at one point, the visiting priest said to the wife that a woman’s place is to serve them from the kitchen. Though she was not deeply offended by his words, they surprised her; such a statement is deeply offensive to most people in the church and in the world.
In Jesus’ time and culture, women had limited social or religious influence and were generally viewed as inferior. But Christ refused to see them that way; He respected women as equal to men, championing their dignity and value even when church hierarchy marginalized them. When it comes to equality, the world seems to move slowly. It was only about a hundred years ago that women in The United States were allowed to vote. The past century has seen many advancements for equal rights, equal jobs, equal pay, etc., that would be mind-blowing to first-century citizens of the Mediterranean world. And even though women have always been identified as the backbone of our church, their place has been kept mostly in the background.
As I understand it, Jesus chose only male apostles because of the role that men played in Jewish society, family, and ecclesial structures at that time, yet He called many females to be disciples. The biblical stories of the Lenten season progress to illustrate that women undertook central roles in His ministry and mission. They unfold at the height of His passion when most of the male apostles and disciples dispersed, doubting, denying, betraying, and abandoning Him. In their place, a significant number of women remained with Christ at the cross, and others came to His tomb. Listed among those present to witness the paschal mystery of His death and resurrection were Mary the mother of Jesus, His mother’s sister, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, the mother of James and Joseph, the mother of the sons of Zebedee, Salome, Mary the wife of Clopas, Joanna, and women who had come from Galilee. And then, on the first Easter when the tomb was discovered empty, they had to call men because women’s testimony was considered unreliable according to their laws. When Peter and the Beloved Disciple arrived to confirm the finding, they soon went home while Mary Magdalene remained to see Jesus and was commissioned as what the church calls the “Apostle of the Apostles.”
Pope Francis has done much to elevate the role of women in our church today amidst great pushback from many powerful ecclesial leaders. His revolutionary actions in appointing women to Vatican positions that had only previously been occupied by men or challenging our synodal conversations to include women’s issues or even washing the feet of females during Holy Week may not seem very revolutionary to many in the twenty-first century, but they are certainly in line with Jesus’ extraordinary posture toward women all those years ago. Like our Lord, Francis acts according to what is good and right while balancing his actions against the cultural and ecclesial norms of the times. Also, like Jesus, he runs the risk of getting crucified.
Our task as Christians is to think with the heart and mind of Jesus. Lent offers us important opportunities to do that. Jesus knew the influential place of women in shaping and guiding our faith. Perhaps in this time we can do more to help establish their place in guiding and shaping the church for a brighter future.
