The Gratitude Of The Woman

 

To My Readers: The last post of the year 2022 will be from my guest poster, Joanna From Poland. Thanks to Joanna and Lee helping me, this blog is able to continue with one well-written post each Monday. I hope all of you had a Holy Christmas, and may you all have the blessings of God upon you in 2023. Please feel free to comment as usual. If you have a specific question or comment for me, I will respond as always, but it may take a bit longer than usual for my reply this week.

God bless you all, my dear readers---Introibo

The Gratitude Of The Woman

By Joanna From Poland

As I am writing these words, we are on the eve of the last full week of Advent. Our minds and bodies have started to grow weary with penance while the post-Christian or rather anti-Christian world around us has been indulging in a full-blown celebration of the “holiday season” for weeks now. Stacks of Christmas decorations lay disorderly in our stores, having been thoroughly searched through by countless customers already, though the most frantic shopping days are probably yet to come. Ember Friday has been substituted by the so-called Black Friday where you go on an online hunt in pursuit of the best bargain. It certainly takes a lot of perseverance for Catholics today not to get swayed by the worldly idea that the “magic” of Christmastime lies in going on shopping sprees and humming “Christmas” tunes along the way.

As the bulk of Christmas preparations rest with the wife and mother, or the woman in general, it seems to me that it is also the ladies who must decide whether Christmas is celebrated in our homes according to the wishes of Our Lord and of His One True Church – and act accordingly. We simply owe it to Our Lord and with this post I would like to share with you some of the reasons that could inspire that gratitude towards God in us this coming Christmas.

There has been much talk of the so-called female liberation in the past decades. The Vatican II sect has been in the process of feminizing their false religion for years now and Bergoglio has certainly pushed things ahead when he officially allowed women to act as lectors and acolytes with his Motu (Ina)Proprio Spiritus Domini issued January 11, 2021. Obviously, the practice of having “altar girls” goofing around the table and female “Eucharistic ministers” has already been well-established in the Novus Ordo. All of this is naturally abominable to anyone who still retains even the remnants of Catholic sense, and does not mistake equality for equity.

One of the most prominent figures of the Novus Ordo who failed to grasp that distinction in terms was John Paul II. In his Letter to Women, issued in relation to the Fourth World Conference on Women, sponsored by the United Nations, and held in Beijing in 1995, having first expressed his deep appreciation to the UN for the organization of this “very significant event,” he states that “as far as personal rights [of women] are concerned, there is an urgent need to achieve real equality [emphasis in the original text] in every area," adding that this is “a matter of justice." 

(See: https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/letters/1995/documents/hf_jp-ii_let_29061995_women.html)

Just to give you a short overview of what that very significant event heartily endorsed by the then chief apostate in the Vatican aimed to accomplish, here’s an excerpt taken from one of the UN-run websites:

The 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing marked a significant turning point for the global agenda for gender equality. The Beijing Declaration and the Platform for Action, adopted unanimously by 189 countries, is an agenda for women’s empowerment and considered the key global policy document on gender equality.

A section of that declaration says the following with regards to the “Human Rights of Women”:

223. (…) the Fourth World Conference on Women reaffirms that reproductive rights rest on the recognition of the basic right of all couples and individuals to decide freely and responsibly the number, spacing and timing of their children and to have the information and means to do so, and the right to attain the highest standard of sexual and reproductive health. It also includes their right to make decisions concerning reproduction free of discrimination, coercion, and violence, as expressed in human rights documents.

Try squaring that with the true Magisterium of the Church expressed in the encyclical on marriage, divorce, and birth control “Casti Connubii” by Pope Pius XI (which, at the time of its release in 1931, was re-printed in full by… the New York Times! Times certainly have changed…).

As we are (hopefully) preparing ourselves spiritually for the joyous and thankful celebration of the Nativity of Our Lord, let us first consider the state of the world before the first coming of Christ, and – in particular – the position of the woman in the pre-Christian society.

Arguing that the restoration of the world through Christianity proves its divine origin, Fr. Stanislaw Bartynowski S.J. in his textbook on Catholic apologetics (1939 Imprimatur) gives an apt description of the world and society before Christ:

Errors with regards to the most basic philosophical and moral issues were dominant everywhere, except for the people of Israel. Only the Israelites worshipped the true God – all of the other nations venerated nature and prostrated before stones and trees, made by their own hands. The entire earth was a vast temple of idols, in which, according to Bossuet’s words: all was God, except for God Himself. Even the most civilized and mentally-developed nations were no less backward in terms of religion than the savage ones. People lost their sense of morality to such an extent that they would adore iniquity in public: each passion and every kind of cruelty had its guardian deity that was venerated by the practice of the corresponding iniquity; thus, pagan temples became places of utmost scandal. Whereas, real virtue, such as charity was regarded as a vice by Seneca or Plautus; honest labor was the object of scorn – according to Aristotle and Plato, an occupation unbecoming of a man since “everyone who has respect for himself” should lead an idle life, as Terence wrote.

As a result of such a revolution in concepts and degeneration of morals, the holiest of man’s affections disappeared – justice and honesty were unheard of and the dignity of man trampled upon. Thus, contempt for human nature was formed. For instance, the father as the master of life and death in his family, could either acknowledge a child as his own or reject it, nay, even kill it with impunity. Seneca regarded this as a just thing to do and, according to Quintilian, the killing of one’s own child was supposed to be a beautiful deed!... [Quintilian was a Roman educator or pedagogue, living in 35-100 A.D. – so much for the rights of children in pagan Rome] Woman was deprived of her honor and regarded as something lower than man. Thus, the wife was the first among her husband’s female slaves, whom he could dispose of at any moment. The family was abused amidst such relations, and the hearth and home shattered by polygamy.

The society became such as were its members: criminal and unhappy. The lust for living it up and the egoism of the mighty caused abject poverty of the poorer classes, which was conducive to all kinds of crime. Major part of the population found themselves in the most pitiful conditions of all, being deprived of their civil rights, nay, even, their human rights… Those were the unfortunate slaves, used for the hardest labor, treated like animals by their masters to be sold or killed on a whim. They could at any time be thrust into the amphitheater to be devoured by lions and tigers…  such spectacles would take a heavy toll of about thirty thousand victims each year!

Liberty in the state was known only by its name, the citizen had no freedom – he was regarded as nothing in the face of the god-state, that could at any moment demand the sacrifice of the citizen’s property, liberty, and life. State orders, though inhumane, were thought to be good and just. The tyranny of the mighty was a substitute for all law – as a consequence, all respect for authority vanished, and those in power could never be sure whether they would live or not… In a word, the law of the fist was the only norm of conduct.

Generally speaking: overabundance and the violation of all that is law at the top, with debasement and slavery of the lowest classes – such is the image of the pagan society before the coming of Christ.

In particular, people were so much accustomed to the corruption and bloody lawlessness which would outrage any honest man today, that neither the lawgivers, nor the philosophers and poets cared at all to raise the world from this moral abyss.

How different is this description of the world immersed in sin and blinded by paganism from the alleged glorious image of ancient civilizations peddled by the media today.

Such was the miserable state of humanity more than 2,000 years ago. Without becoming overly apocalyptic, we can safely assume that the modern world bears a striking resemblance to the one in which the Incarnate Word was to be made flesh and born of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the cold stable of Bethlehem. The general falling away from the Catholic Faith in the aftermath of Vatican II has led many to adopt the pagan ideas of old – if not in theory, then certainly in deed. Nature abhors a vacuum, and human nature is no exception to that rule. Most people who consider themselves educated and intelligent sincerely believe that it is imperative that we stop burning fossil fuels so as to “save the planet” but shrug their shoulders at the thought of innocent babies being murdered in their mothers’ wombs at an unprecedented rate.

If human dignity as such was utterly destroyed in the pre-Christian era, the position of the woman was particularly pitiful. Fr. Jozef Stanislaw Adamski thus outlines the lot of the weaker sex in the pagan world in his book The Dignity and Mission of the Christian Woman (1922):

The originally beautiful and noble creature of God – the woman – was basically devastated. God has, since the dawn of time, clearly defined the position and the mission of women. He provided the first couple in Paradise with mutual unity and love. The woman was no stranger to the man, much less was she lower than him or insignificant. (…) Therefore, the very means of creating her should inspire in her husband the love for her, should make him sacrifice himself for her, and respect her. God set His goal for the woman clearly: she was to be the man’s helper, being similar to him, having the same nature and value as he has – the alike helper (adjutorium simile). God demanded of him limitless sacrifice for her: “wherefore a man shall leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife” (Gen. 2: 24). Such was the original work of God: kind, gentle, harmonious, fertile, and powerful.

However, man destroyed this wondrous work, and put his own monstrosity in its place. In the place of union and love, he introduced tyranny – the woman was supposed to cater to his base lust like a slave. Having humiliated the woman, man started to despise her; deprived her of the due honor, denied the position assigned to her by God, devised laws against her – wicked and cruel ones – which deprived the woman of the dignity of a human being which left her to fall prey to all kinds of injustice. The man, instead of putting his own strength and the energy of his sacrifice at the service of her weakness, took advantage of her feebleness in order to subjugate her completely and destroy her. God called her the mother of the living, gave her the right to bear and educate her children, but the man took away even this most crucial right from her! In the most enlightened Rome in the full bloom of civilization under the emperor Augustus only the free women were defended from violence by the law – [a man] was free to do with his female slaves whatever he pleased. The woman was denied her civic laws; she was held in custody her entire life. As a daughter, she was her father’s possession who could kill her or sell her and offer her hand in marriage without her consent. The woman was underage her entire life – from her father’s slavery she was passed under the hand (sub manum) of her husband as his daughter (filiae loco), for her husband to regard her as an object. According to the Lex Voconia [the Roman law of inheritance passed in 169 B.C.], she was denied her father’s inheritance even if she was a single child. In relation to her husband, the woman was a servant, a slave, allocated to the lowest works. The role of the slave was so eagerly accepted by the disgraced woman that, after having served her entire life, she would commit suicide on her husband’s grave as it was the case in India or among the Gaul tribes, not because she wanted to be happy in the life to come (paganism did not regard women as being worthy of happiness), not because she wished to accompany her husband – but in order to serve him still in the afterlife!

Not very different was the fate of the woman among the Slavonic peoples, in Poland. In order to understand the sad lot of the woman, suffice to say that polygamy was a common practice. Once introduced into the house and handed over under the authority of her husband, the woman awaited a most painful fate. Only yesterday [that is, before she was married] was she so respected that if any man should come into contact with her, it was regarded as her being defiled. She was believed to be a creature so pure and exalted that she would be called a diva, a kind of a goddess who could at any moment take the honorific place of a priestess and a seer in the pagan temple of ancient Slavs – now she is called names such as the one who does not know, cast into the cabin of the savage master of her life and death. The husband, dissatisfied with a daughter being born, would (many times before the mother’s eyes) grab an ax and kill the baby – woe to the mother if she dared weep or complain! (…) Such is the fate [of the woman] today in places where the rays of the Gospel have not reached yet or the warmth of which cannot be felt any longer.

Indeed, the paragraphs quoted above express to some degree the present condition of the woman in today’s world which had known Christ and His One True Church yet rejected Him, and fell once again into the pits of sin. Isn’t the so-called “liberated” woman a slave to her own wicked passions when she is willing to walk the streets with lewd banners in support of her “right” to kill her own unborn baby? Isn’t she complacent with her own enslavement when, working all week as a clerk in the supermarket, grumbles at the prospect of having a free Sunday due to the state legislation on restricting public commerce on that day?

Let us now consider, Fr. Adamski continues, how Our Savior raises the woman up from her debasement and ennobles her. (…) Christ Our Lord elevates the woman in Holy maternity. Oh, how wondrous, how lovely is the scene that begins the work of our redemption! The angel – sent to the woman - descends from heaven; he comes to arrange with her the greatest work of God destined to regenerate and save the human race. He solemnly declares that she is full of grace; at her feet homage is paid; heaven and earth awaits her consent for the work in which she is to play the most crucial part. What an amazing and most marvelous turn of events this is! What glory; what a wonderful restoration of the woman! At once, the woman who groaned under the weight of most shameful slavery, stands at the unparalleled heights, at the highest throne of heaven right next to God-Man. “The queen stood on thy right hand, in gilded clothing; surrounded with variety” (Ps. 44:10).

Our Savior raises the woman up illuminating her with innocence and grace. The Virgin Mother, the Mother of God inaugurated the liberation and elevation of the woman with unsurpassed charm and light. Still, in order to lift the woman up something more was needed since the long ages of pain and ruin had deprived her of the freshness of her original innocence and the strength of her native virtue. Lo! At Christ’s feet there kneels a woman, representing the degradation of the female, shedding profuse tears of contrition at the feet of God-Man, Who, before the spectators’ eyes, restores her good name, and, to some degree, illuminates her with the original innocence. Jesus not only says to her: “thy sins are forgiven thee” but also praises her fervent faith, extols her magnanimous charity, and the service of her boundless sacrifice. The purified and sanctified woman is led by the Holy Savior to the heights of heroism. During the horrifying passion of Christ, when His flock was scattered, when men – the Apostles, except for St. John – desert Jesus, the woman takes their place at Calvary, fearlessly facing the rage of the murderers of God and gathers in a way the last drops of His Blood!

(…)

Our Savior dignifies the woman with the honors of the hearth and home. Those rays of God in which Christ clothed the woman who became His spouse in the religious life, are shining also beyond the cloister, and are spread throughout the entire world. From that time on the mother of the family has occupied a prominent and wide place in the home, guaranteed her by the Christian right of sacramental marriage. The woman is a spouse inseparably joined with her husband. Here does she reign – and if the Apostle reminds her of her duty to be obedient to her husband (Col 3:18), then it is the obedience full of glory which does not violate any of her rights. Now, she is the one who educates her children who acknowledge in her the most tender and sacred authority and prestige.

Our Savior consecrates and dedicates the woman to great works in the society. (…) From the early centuries of Christianity, where events of great importance have been taking place, there have been found a Christian woman. Constantine is aided by [his mother] Helena; Theodosius  had [his daughter] Eudoxia and [sister] Pulcheria; Clotilde [a Catholic princess who remained Catholic despite the Arianism of her court] converts Clovis [the first king of the Franks whose baptism in 496 unified the Frankish tribes; he is regarded by the French as the founder of France]; Blanche transforms her son into St. Louis; Doubravka [a Bohemian princess] brings the light of the Faith into Poland [with her husband, Mieszko I, being baptized in 966 thus consolidating the once-pagan tribes and giving rise to the first independent and Christian Polish state, the Duchy of Poland], and Hedwig [or Jadwiga of Poland, the first woman to be crowned as monarch of the Kingdom of Poland in 1384] brings the Faith into Lithuania. On the throne as well as on the lowest steps of the social ladder, the woman, lifted up by Christ, becomes a heroic creature, eager for the highest sacrifice, a fearless aide, whether she is called “the good duchess” Elizabeth of Hungary or Genevieve, the humble Parisian shepherdess, or the Maid of Orleans, Joan, sent by God to free France (…). Fr. Ventura rightly states that “popes, apostolic men, founders of religious congregations, saintly priests and lay people, even kings who were not saints, would have accomplished nothing sacred, great, beautiful, useful in the interest of the faith or morals, nay, even the material prosperity of peoples without the cooperation in this or that way of a Catholic woman: if that woman – for her part - was thoroughly Catholic and – apart from her lofty virtues - she would have a profound and extensive knowledge of religion; if she would shine with impeccability”. (…)

May the women craving for unhealthy emancipation remember just what they owe to Christianity, without which the slavery and shame of old awaits them!...

Conclusion

Although people like Karol Wojtyla may have envisaged that the great process of women’s liberation (…) is still unfinished, true Catholics surely know better than that. Ladies, we’ve already been liberated! Let us give thanks this Christmas to the One who truly liberated us, male and female alike, having broken the chains of our pagan captivity, snatching us with His own Precious Blood from the shadow of death, and having illumined the entire world with the light of the True Catholic Faith which we must preserve and spread according to our abilities in these trying times of near universal apostasy. May our gratitude to Jesus Christ, our greatest Heavenly Benefactor be ever renewed in our hearts, especially as we kneel in our churches, our chapels, and our homes before the crib of Our Redeemer in the midst of the world which “knew him not.”  Merry Christmas!