The only liberator of women in history was Jesus Christ. Catholics are accused, falsely, of worshiping His mother, Mary. We venerate Mary. We ask His mother to pray for us, to intercede with Him on our behalf. We try to imitate her faith and obedience–“Be it done unto me according to thy word.” And most of us usually fall way, way short.
When I read a poll showing that 2/3 of the adults in a Catholic church on any given Sunday are women, I was struck by the ratio. Two-thirds of Christ’s followers who dared ascend Calvery to witness His murder were women, too: Mary, Mary, and John. The male disciples were in hiding.
God is not bound by time and space as we are. When Mary accepted her role as the mother of God, her conception was immaculate. She was freed from the stain of original sin. Her savior did a great thing for her, and her savior became her son.
The only true liberation one can experience is liberation from sin. “Sed libera nos a malo.” It does not translate to English. The Latin is perfect. “Sed libera nos a malo.” But liberate us from the bad. Christ, by his conception, liberated Mary from the original, thus all, bad.
Following Christ’s example, Christian men have a singular duty to liberate women–to liberate them from the bad. The first step in this liberation is to commit to yourself never to have sex with a woman who would have an abortion. The next step is to never burden a woman who isn’t your wife with that possibility. The third step is to make sure the woman you marry would never consider such a thing. The fourth step is to marry her when you find her. The fifth step is to never give her a reason to dishonor her vows because you would never consider dishonoring yours. The sixth step is to love her as Christ loved His mother, Our Lady.
These six steps, if followed by every man, would solve more social problems than every government program ever conceived. No more out-of-wedlock births. No more cheating spouses. No more abortions. No more battered women. (Can you imagine Jesus battering Mary?) Look up the stats on poverty and you will find that poverty in America has a single cause: out of wedlock births–single female head-of-household families. If you want to liberate women, liberate them from the bad, not from accountability. And if you want to advance men, advance them in the example of Christ.
Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum.