Prophetic Mothers of the Church
5th Sunday of Easter and Mother’s Day, 5/14/23
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Helen Weber-McReynolds, RWCP
Acts 16: 16-19, 23, 40; 21: 7-9; Ps. 78:1-7 (feminist interpretation by Marchiene Vroon Rienstra); John 14: 18-21, 25-26
A few years ago, a friend invited me to an exciting event. She said some progressive Catholics were hosting a prayer service at Cathedral High School. It was to celebrate the feast day of St. Mary of Magdala. When I got to the Cathedral chapel the day of the event, I found that the leader of the prayer service was a petite, light-haired lady named Maria McClain. She said the group there intended to form a new prayer community in support of women’s ordination. She used inclusive language, addressed God as female, and preached about how Mary Magdalene was the Apostle to the Apostles. I wanted to know more about this new group! I was excited to talk to people who thought ordination for women could be a reality. At that time I had just about given up on the hierarchical church, and Maria and her group felt like prophesy to me that day. What they were saying was what I understood to be right and just, and consistent with the love of the God who made us all in her own image. It seemed Maria and her group were speaking God’s truth, and protesting the injustice of exclusion of women from church leadership.
That’s what prophecy is, after all. It is listening to and reflecting on the word of God, and then proclaiming it to other people. Scripturally, it was especially called for when one perceived injustice, and urgently felt the need to help people turn toward justice and mercy instead. Prophets such as Isaiah, Jonah, and Zechariah urgently demanded returning to adherence to God’s word, and conversion away from abuses of the law that had arisen. Prophecy is reminding people of the justice and unconditional love of God, and working to actualize it in your community.
Part of the mission of the Roman Catholic Womanpriest movement is prophetic disobedience—choosing to defy the proclamations of the church forbidding women’s ordination, and instead following the example of Jesus. Scripture tells us Jesus always fought for the rights of those dispossessed, disenfranchised, and discriminated against. The early church followed his example, welcoming women and other marginalized people as prophets, community leaders, preachers, and benefactors. The women’s ordination movement seeks to restore the openness and inclusivity of the early church. It seeks to prophesy that God calls people of all genders and sexualities to ministry. It seeks to proclaim to the world that exclusion of women from ministry is unjust and that limiting ordination to men is depriving the church of gifted leaders.
In our first reading today, five women prophets were mentioned. Our second reading invites us all to to tell of the wonders of God’s strong and marvelous love, and to pass it on to our children. And then in the Gospel, Jesus spoke as the voice of God to the world, saying I am in God, you are in me, and I am in you. He was the Truth personified.
Maria went to become the prophetic mother of this church, St. Mary of Magdala. She helped firmly established us as a community, passing on the responsibility of proclaiming our truth. St. Mary of Magdala community can prophesy by continuing to serve as an example of a new way of being church, of the potential for inclusive, creative catholic communities. We can spread the word that inclusion and Catholicism are not mutually exclusive. We can invite people to join us, especially those many people concerned about the rigidity of the hierarchical Catholic church. Most of all, we can live lives of acceptance, love, and inclusion, in imitation of Jesus, our brother, our teacher, and our example.
5th Sunday of Easter and Mother’s Day, 5/14/23
`
Helen Weber-McReynolds, RWCP
Acts 16: 16-19, 23, 40; 21: 7-9; Ps. 78:1-7 (feminist interpretation by Marchiene Vroon Rienstra); John 14: 18-21, 25-26
A few years ago, a friend invited me to an exciting event. She said some progressive Catholics were hosting a prayer service at Cathedral High School. It was to celebrate the feast day of St. Mary of Magdala. When I got to the Cathedral chapel the day of the event, I found that the leader of the prayer service was a petite, light-haired lady named Maria McClain. She said the group there intended to form a new prayer community in support of women’s ordination. She used inclusive language, addressed God as female, and preached about how Mary Magdalene was the Apostle to the Apostles. I wanted to know more about this new group! I was excited to talk to people who thought ordination for women could be a reality. At that time I had just about given up on the hierarchical church, and Maria and her group felt like prophesy to me that day. What they were saying was what I understood to be right and just, and consistent with the love of the God who made us all in her own image. It seemed Maria and her group were speaking God’s truth, and protesting the injustice of exclusion of women from church leadership.
That’s what prophecy is, after all. It is listening to and reflecting on the word of God, and then proclaiming it to other people. Scripturally, it was especially called for when one perceived injustice, and urgently felt the need to help people turn toward justice and mercy instead. Prophets such as Isaiah, Jonah, and Zechariah urgently demanded returning to adherence to God’s word, and conversion away from abuses of the law that had arisen. Prophecy is reminding people of the justice and unconditional love of God, and working to actualize it in your community.
Part of the mission of the Roman Catholic Womanpriest movement is prophetic disobedience—choosing to defy the proclamations of the church forbidding women’s ordination, and instead following the example of Jesus. Scripture tells us Jesus always fought for the rights of those dispossessed, disenfranchised, and discriminated against. The early church followed his example, welcoming women and other marginalized people as prophets, community leaders, preachers, and benefactors. The women’s ordination movement seeks to restore the openness and inclusivity of the early church. It seeks to prophesy that God calls people of all genders and sexualities to ministry. It seeks to proclaim to the world that exclusion of women from ministry is unjust and that limiting ordination to men is depriving the church of gifted leaders.
In our first reading today, five women prophets were mentioned. Our second reading invites us all to to tell of the wonders of God’s strong and marvelous love, and to pass it on to our children. And then in the Gospel, Jesus spoke as the voice of God to the world, saying I am in God, you are in me, and I am in you. He was the Truth personified.
Maria went to become the prophetic mother of this church, St. Mary of Magdala. She helped firmly established us as a community, passing on the responsibility of proclaiming our truth. St. Mary of Magdala community can prophesy by continuing to serve as an example of a new way of being church, of the potential for inclusive, creative catholic communities. We can spread the word that inclusion and Catholicism are not mutually exclusive. We can invite people to join us, especially those many people concerned about the rigidity of the hierarchical Catholic church. Most of all, we can live lives of acceptance, love, and inclusion, in imitation of Jesus, our brother, our teacher, and our example.
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