32nd Sunday of Ordinary Time

 

Women of Faith!

How did the woman in the Gospel do it?

7 husbands.

All those toilet seats up!

All those socks and underwear down on the floor

And we wont’t even mention some of the other things that men do

That women put up with!

And the other woman; a mother;

7 sons!

She gave birth to them;

Raised them;

And then was willing to give them back to the Lord.

The women in these two readings teach us about the cross and resurrection.

The woman in the first reading saw her 7 sons die in a single day for refusing to worship false gods.

As each of her sons died she said,

“I do not know how you came into my womb.

It was not I who gave you life and breath,

Nor I who set the order of the elements within each of you.

The Creator will in His mercy give life and breath back to each one of you. Mac. 7:22-3

The woman in the Gospel

Married 7 husbands;

In order to raise descendants in the family.

And had to bury each one of them.

Women experience life and death;

The cross and Resurrection

In a different and sometimes more profound and intimate ways than men do.

While all the other disciples fled,

Mary stood at the foot of the cross and gave her only Son back to God.

While all the disciples were hiding behind locked doors,

Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw the Risen Lord.

Because women give life I think they experience death differently than men.

And Because they sacrifice their own bodies to give that life;

I think they also have a different understanding of the cross than men.

Men and women are not meant to be in competition but to complement each other.

And when they complement each other.

They learn from the other.

The mysteries of life and death;

the Cross and Resurrection