Host: Welcome to Saint Patrick Catholic Community Podcast. We're glad you're with us.
Fr. Eric: Last Saturday, the one hundred and fifty second running of the Kentucky Derby was done, and a horse named Golden Temple, with 23 to one odds, won the race coming from dead last in order to win by a nose. For the first time in history, Cherie Duvaux, a female horse trainer, becomes the winner of the Kentucky Derby. 17 women overall have been horse trainers in the Kentucky Derby over one hundred and fifty two years. She was interviewed immediately afterwards, and I happened to catch one of many interviews that she gave this whole past week. And this was interesting, as the reporter kind of set up and say, well, what's it like being the first female trainer to win, and that you'll be standing for all women, and you're going to be a role model, and kind of just kept going on and on.
And this is how Cherie Duvaux responded. This business is difficult for anyone in this business. That, in other words, she's grateful and glad that she did that, but it's tough, whether male or female. And I really responded to that answer because they said, everyone matters. Everyone's involved.
We're all in this together, is basically what she said. Today, our country has celebrated Mother's Day, and there are mothers who look forward to this day, a day of rejoicing and receiving love and knowing that it really means a lot to them. And I'm grateful for that, and we should honor those kind of experiences. The other mothers, maybe who are guardians, who are stepmothers or blended family, or maybe even women who cannot have what's called a traditional family or birth, rather, you know, maybe someone in their life has given them the title mother. Recently, one of my former players sent me a text and said this, you're like the grandpa I never had.
That was the first time I've ever been called grandpa. I did not like it. I guess I'm officially old. They said, you're like my dad, my brother, my uncle, but never grandpa. But I thought about it and I thought, I'm glad.
And I hope women feel the same way if anyone else has the honor of giving them the title mother. But any pastor knows not everyone's there together. Some people do not look forward to this day, and a number of people don't come to Mass as we honor mothers because there needs to be healing. Maybe there's some deep hurt and maybe some things where we're missing a deceased mother. And I just want to let all the women know we are all in this together.
No matter what our journey is, no matter what we feel, if anyone has given you the honor of mother, you are in this together. You know, we as a church are not very good at knowing our history regarding the involvement of women. We're pretty ignorant to really be honest with you about understanding them. And what I'd like to do then is to walk with you the history in scriptures and in the early church, the role that women have played significantly in the faith and in following Jesus. Saint Luke's gospel and the acts of the apostles, which he both read with as the author there, traditionally have said, have shown women as disciples, leaders, witnesses, patrons, prophets, and examples of faith.
Here are some of the ways that Luke and Acts of the Apostles highlight women. First of all, women are central from the beginning. Luke begins with a story of Jesus with women playing major roles. Mary says yes to God and becomes the model of disciple who trusts God completely. Elizabeth recognizes God's work before anyone else does, and Anna publicly proclaims the child Jesus in the temple.
Luke give women voices, songs, and speeches. Mary sings the Magnificat, the beautiful prayer. Elizabeth blesses Mary. Anna proclaims redemption. This is unusual in a world where women's voices were often ignored publicly.
Women are examples of faith. Luke often presents women as models of trust, persistence, and discipleship. This includes Mary of Bethany sitting at the feet like a disciple of Jesus, learning from a rabbi, the persistent widow who keeps seeking justice, the widow of Nabim whose son Jesus raises, the sinful woman who anoints Jesus' feet with tears and love. Again and again, Luke shows women understanding Jesus deeply and responding faithfully. Women travel and support Jesus' ministry.
Luke uniquely mentions that women accompany Jesus and help support the ministry financially. In Luke chapter eight, such women as Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Susanna are described as traveling with Jesus and the apostles, providing them out of their own resources. This shows women as active partners in ministry, not just observers. Women are witnesses to the resurrection. In Luke's gospel, women are the first witnesses of the empty tomb.
Women discover the resurrection before the apostles, Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and other women disciples. In the ancient world, women's testimony was often undervalued legally and socially, yet Luke presents them as the first proclaimers of the resurrection. This is a powerful sign of their importance in the Christian community. Women receive the Holy Spirit in the acts of the apostles. At the beginning of acts, women are present with the disciples in prayer before Pentecost.
When the Holy Spirit comes, the promise of the prophet Joel is fulfilled. Your sons and daughters shall be prophesying. Acts presents women as fully included in the spirit filled life of the church. Women serve as leaders in the early church. Acts introduces important women leaders.
Lydia. Lydia becomes the first Christian convert in Europe and holds the house church. Priscilla teaches alongside her husband and helps instruct Apollos. Tabitha is known for charity and service, and Philip's four daughters are described as prophets. Women are shown evangelizing, teaching, leading households of prayer of faith, praying, prophesizing, serving the poor.
Luke emphasizes God's care for the marginalized. Luke especially focuses on people often overlooked and pushed aside by society, the poor, sinners, foreigners, widows, women. Women frequently appear in Luke as people whom Jesus notices, heals, restores, and honors. For example, the bent over woman healed on the Sabbath, the hemorrhaging woman healed through faith, the widow who gives 2 small coins, the grieving widows Jesus helps. Luke's message is that the kingdom of God lifts up those in society that are pushed aside.
So, Acts of the Apostles in Luke describes women as disciples, patrons, witnesses, evangelizers, teachers, leaders in church households, examples of faith and courage. The message running through both books is that the Holy Spirit works through women and men alike in the mission of the church. The writings of Luke stand out because they give especially sustained attention to women in the life of Jesus and the life of the early church, praying and prophesizing, participating openly in the mission of the church. Luke often pairs stories of men and women together, Zechariah and Mary, Simeon and Anna, the lost sheep and the lost coin. The literal pattern emphasizes God's salvation includes everyone equally.
Luke highlights compassion towards marginalized women, women as examples of discipleship, women as active participants in evangelization. In the Gospel of Mark, women are seen as faithful but often are in the background. Mark's gospel, the earliest gospel, is shorter and more urgent in style. Women appear less frequently than in Luke, but they do appear, and often they are models of deep faith. The women with the hemorrhage, the Syphophoenician woman, the widow in the two coins, women who anoint Jesus at Bethany.
Mark especially emphasizes that women remain faithful during Jesus' suffering while many male disciples flee. At the crucifixion and empty tomb, Mary Magdalene and other women remain present. However, Mark gives less detail about women's leadership roles in the church compared with Acts. The Gospel of Matthew, women in salvation history, is important because it often connects them to God's larger plan in history. Matthew uniquely includes women in Jesus' genealogy, Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba, Mary.
This is unusual for ancient, geologies because it suggests that God works through unexpected people. Matthew includes women at the resurrection, the Canaanite woman with persistent faith, Mary, the mother of Jesus, but Matthew generally focuses more on fulfillment of prophecy, teaching, and identify Jesus as Messiah than on women's ministry roles specifically. In the Gospel of John, women as theological witnesses are presented with long conversations with Jesus. So the Samaritan woman at the well becoming an evangelizer for her town, Mary of Bethany, Martha of Bethany making a strong confession of faith, Mary Magdalene encountering the risen Christ first. John often portrays women as people who recognize Jesus' identity before others do.
The Samaritan woman in John functions almost like an apostle. She meets Jesus, believes, and brings him to others. John gives fewer examples of institutional leadership than Acts, but women play major roles in revealing who Jesus is. Saint Paul is both radical in conclusion, but also difficult passages. In the writing of Paul the Apostles, we are complex because they both contain strong evidence of women participating in ministry and passages that some seem restrictive.
Women are seen as coworkers in ministry, as Paul names many women leaders. Phoebe, called by a deacon as a deacon and patron, that's what they called her. Oneia, as a prominent among the apostles. Priscilla, teacher and missionary partner, and Lydia. Paul often describes women as coworkers, leaders of house churches, laborers in the gospel.
In the letter to the Galatians, Paul famously writes, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Some Pauline texts appear to limit women speaking publicly or having authority. In first Corinthians, women should keep silent in church, instructions about head coverings, and in first Timothy, restricting teaching. Scholars debate these texts intensely. Some of them see them as a response to specific local problems.
Others view them as a broader church rules. Some note differences between Paul's authentic letters and the later pastoral letters. What makes interpretation difficult is that Paul's actual ministry clearly involved women as leaders and coworkers. One striking pattern across the New Testament is this, women are often portrayed as the first to believe, the first to remain faithful, the first to witness the resurrection, and among the first to spread the gospel. This is especially strong in Luke, John, and Acts, where women are repeatedly shown as essential participants in God's mission.
Did the Roman Empire persecute the early Christians because of the way they treated women? Well, the persecution from the Roman Empire did not happen mainly because Christians treated women differently, but the Christian view of women in the family life was one factor that made Christians seem strange, disruptive, and even threatening to the Roman Empire. The main reasons for persecution usually refers refusing to worship Roman gods and the emperor, being seen as disloyal to the empire, suspicion about secret meetings, and fear that Christianity awakened, that, awakened traditional Roman social order. But the way Christians treated women did contribute to the Russian the Roman suspicion in several important ways. Christianity gave women unusual dignity.
In the Roman world, women generally had fewer legal and social freedoms than men, although wealthy Roman women sometimes had influence. Early Christianity taught ideas that were unusual for the time. Men and women were equal before God. Women could participate in worship communities. Women could host churches in their homes.
Widows and poor women were cared for. Marriage involved mutual fidelity. Women were not merely property. This attracted many women to Christianity. Roman critics sometimes became suspicious because women attended Christian gatherings.
Women could be influential in Christian communities. Wives sometimes converted before husbands. Christian loyalty to Christ would become stronger than loyalty to the family religion. Roman society was built around the authority of the father. The father traditionally controlled family, religion, marriages, household decisions, social identity.
Christian Christianity sometimes disrupted the structure. Women converted independently. Slaves and with women worshipped alongside wealthy men. Christians called one another brothers and sisters. Spiritual identity became more important than social rank.
This could make Christianity seem socially dangerous, and some Romans worried. If women, slaves, and lower class stopped following traditional custom, society would fall apart. In early churches, they met in the homes but led by women such as Lydia and Priscilla, And Roman authorities were often suspicious of private association. Rumors began to spread that Christians broke family loyalty, held dangerous secret rituals, undermined Roman religion. Some accusations were completely false and based on misunderstanding.
And one more thing, especially that shocked the Roman society, was the courage of Christian women martyrs. Women such as Perpetua and Felicity publicly chose loyalty to Christ over obedience to Roman expectation. This was deeply unsettling in a society where women were expected to remain under male authority. Their martyrdom stories inspired Christians, but alarmed Roman authorities because they showed that Christianity could create loyalty stronger than the state and family pressures. Christianity gave women greater dignity, welcomed them into the community life, challenged Roman family structures, created communities where social barriers were reduced.
All of this made Christianity seem unusual, sometimes threatening to Roman society, contributing to suspicion, hostility towards the early church. Some of you stopped listening because it was too much. You didn't want to hear anymore, and that's the problem of the church today. We don't know our history. We don't know what we stood for and what Jesus wanted us to stand for, and we listen to a culture in a way where women are not always given dignity and respect.
That becomes our modeling. And so for those who stopped listening, you can always follow on podcast, and hear again, because I purposely did this as the ocean, wave after wave after wave coming. Because if I only shared with you a few verses, you would say, you're taking it out of context. Today, the evidence is overwhelming, and we can't deny that. For others, there are men and women who needed to hear this because they are struggling.
They wonder if they matter. They wonder if they belong to such a community as ours, and they needed to hear that. And so as Cherie Devoe, the horse trainer of Golden Temple said, we are all in this together.
Host: This has been a Saint Patrick Catholic Community podcast. For more of our shows, go to our website and click Saint Patrick's Studio.