Next week we leave Ordinary Time to begin a new liturgical year. Have you noticed anything about the readings lately? Since mid-August, the Church has been giving us direction on how to live a faith-filled life so that we may reap our eternal reward. We’ve covered spiritual ground (wisdom and sainthood), social behavior (preferential option for the poor), cultural restoration (respect for all life), and today, how to use the gifts you’ve been given. In short, we’re learning what an apprentice-to-Jesus looks like.
Today’s Proverbs reading is specifically for us women. At first blush, it seems a little… too perfect, perhaps even unattainable. Our worthy wife never sins, is trustworthy, intelligent, successful in her business ventures, works with loving hands in all her tasks, provides for the poor, and fears God. My first response was to recall Elizabeth Bennet’s line in Pride & Prejudice after hearing Mr. Darcy’s prerequisites of the perfect woman, “I am no longer surprised at your knowing only six accomplished women. I now wonder at your knowing any at all.” She adds, “I never saw such a woman. Surely, she would be a fearsome thing to behold.”
And here I have pause for pondering. “A fearsome thing to behold.” A Proverbs 19 woman would indeed be a fearsome thing to behold, and something for us of the feminine persuasion to strive towards, for it’s not as trivial as we might think.
Fearsome synonyms: Strong. Powerful. Persistent. Brave. Persuasive. Tenacious. I don’t know about you, but those are the qualities I want to have in my spiritual toolkit. We of the fairer sex have work to do - and much depends on us in this world, both spiritual and corporeal. St. John Paul II in his Letter To Women (1995) said that women will necessarily help bring about his Civilization of Love. Why? Because we see things holistically and use our heart-wisdom – aka, our “feminine genius.” He writes:
“Women will increasingly play a part in the solution of the serious problems of the future: leisure time, the quality of life, migration, social services, euthanasia, drugs, health care, the ecology, etc. In all these areas a greater presence of women in society will prove most valuable, for it will help to manifest the contradictions present when society is organized solely according to the criteria of efficiency and productivity, and it will force systems to be redesigned in a way which favors the processes of humanization which mark the civilization of love.”
That Proverbs 19 snippet? It comes from another woman who wants a civilization of love: the mother of Lemuel, king of a northern Arabia country. She gives her son advice - and while the first nine lines are instructions for his kingship, the second set, the ones we hear today, are the characteristics he should seek in a bride…. his companion for life, his confidant, his paramour, his sounding board. She’ll rule hearth and home without interference and give financial, political, and social guidance when necessary. She’ll raise the future king, co-directing everything from his food to his friends to the way he yields his God-given talents. Think of Our Lady parenting Jesus alongside Joseph… she’s Queen of heaven and earth for a reason, you know.
Last week, I asked about finding your identity (where do you buy your oil?) and this week I’m wonder how you will use your God-given talents to bring about something Beautiful for God. The Lord asks a lot of us Proverbs 19 women for our work for the world. I think we are up to the challenge. #FiercefortheLord