CHRIST IN THE HOME
http://www.ewtn.com/library/FAMILY/CHRISTH1.TXT
BY RAOUL PLUS, S.J.
a Translation from the French
FREDERICK PUSTET CO., INC. Publishers NEW YORK AND
CINCINNATI
Nihil Obstat:
JOHN M. A. FEARNS, S.T.D., Censor Librorum
Imprimatur:
+FRANCIS CARDINAL SPELLMAN,
Archbishop of New York
New York, June 19, 1951
MARRIAGE
MAN BORN OF SLIME
WHAT was God's first aim in instituting marriage? Was it the mutual
union of the couple? Was it procreation?
We can learn much of God's designs without departing from the story
of Genesis. God desiring to multiply humankind by means of generation
(the first aim) created a mutual attraction between the sexes which
would lead them on to love (the second aim). That is how the matter
stands from a logical point of view. Considered from the
psychological point of view, the first aim is the union of the two;
the child comes only as an issue and consecration of the union.
This is no time to develop a thesis. Much more valuable is it to draw
inspiration for useful reflection upon the plan of God.
Adam was formed from the slime of the earth, Eve from the body of
Adam. Might not this great difference in origin explain, in part at
least, the essential difference between the masculine temperament and
the feminine temperament? Man is coarser grained, more vehement in
passion, more readily excited to physical desires. That is
understandable because of his role in generation; he is constituted
for conquest and, with rare exceptions, more readily advances beyond
the suggestions or demands of delicacy and restraining modesty than a
woman does. In many ways he evidences that he is more earthy than his
wife. This is not a condemnation but simply a statement of a
providential reality. Woman, according to Bishop Dupanloup, is more
soulful than man. That, too, can be understood in the light of her
role in marriage. Might it not also be explained by the fact that,
born as she was from a living human being, the beginnings of her
material being were nobler than Adam?
In any case, one thing is certain--God wanted Adam and Eve to be
different from each other. It is a mistake for man to become
effeminate, for woman to play the man. They are not made to resemble
each other but to complement each other.
Let man keep the department of masculine forcefulness and let woman
keep the department of necessary refinements.
Woman has probably failed at times in fidelity to her essential
feminine vocation. Her game of imitating man whether attempted
through perversity or thoughtlessness goes contrary to the plan of
the Most High. God does well what He does. If He created Eve after
Adam, it was not that He might have upon the earth only Adam and Adam.
Man too does not want to see just himself again in woman. Just
because he has enough of being himself only, he desires something
else. If woman presents nothing but an extension of masculinity, he
has nothing but that to go on. He becomes completely himself only
when a woman who is truly a woman comes to join him according to the
plan willed by Providence.
Let women take on men's work, if need be, during difficult times
which call men to arms; they but do their duty and we extol them for
it. Aside from such an emergency, let them keep to their own field,
the exercise of womanly functions, and leave to men the functions of man.
SOME FEMININE TRAITS
THE Bible clearly reveals the role designed for woman by Providence.
Formed from a living person rather than from slime, her lead in the
home is to be spiritual; drawn from close proximity to man's heart
she is to rule by loving devotedness. Created as man's complement,
she is not to become his rival but his helpmate.
It is worthy of note also that the first woman was imposed on Adam.
The first man did not have a choice among several women. Eve formed
by God from Adam's own being was given to Adam by God.
Ever after, aside from the periods in history when woman was nothing
more than a slave or when she was given in marriage without her
consent, she would be chosen by man in order to enter into marriage.
As a consequence, woman has a double characteristic--an innate genius
for adornment and, in regard to other women, a jealousy that can be
inflamed by a mere nothing.
She has a genius for adornment. She must please. And that is right.
No one need reproach her for striving to do so. "The pheasants are
preening their feathers," Saint Francis de Sales humorously commented
in answer to Saint Jane Frances de Chantal's letter expressing worry
over her daughters' newly evidenced concern about their dress. It is
excess that is blameworthy.
Charles Diehl, in the first volume of "Figures Byzantines" tells us
that political reasons did not always direct the marriages contracted
by the emperor of Byzantium. When the Empress Irene wanted to marry
off her son Constantine, she sent messengers everywhere to find the
most beautiful girl in the empire; she herself set the requirements
as to age, height, and personal appearance of the candidates.
A fig for nobility! The basilissa needed only to be beautiful. That
alone qualified her to be considered sovereign; the marriage would
follow. It was not therefore as wife of the emperor that she received
power but rather as a sort of choice by God indicated by her beauty. . .
How many women at that time must have hoped to become empress.
And how many women since the Byzantine era as well as before have
counted on their "beauty" to come into power and acquire a husband.
Provided that she stays within her bounds when capitalizing on her
real or supposed beauty, woman does not depart from her role.
She does however depart from it when concern for her looks becomes
her sole interest or when she gives herself up to jealousy of actual
or possible rivals.
Her aim should be to keep within the plan of Providence and never go beyond it.
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Lord, may everything we do begin with Your inspiration and continue
with Your help,
so that all our prayers and works may begin in You and by You be happily ended.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
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Lord, may everything we do begin with Your inspiration and continue
with Your help,
so that all our prayers and works may begin in You and by You be happily ended.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
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